LondonMetric completes £120m of deals

LondonMetric has bought £70m of warehouses and offloaded £50m of non-core assets. The £70m of acquisitions consist of seven warehouses with a WAULT of 15 years, acquired at a blended net initial yield of 5.8%, rising to a minimum of 6.1% over the next two years and 6.5% after five years. Some 91% of rent across the seven warehouses is subject to open-market reviews. The assets acquired comprise a 182,000 sq ft regional logistics warehouse in Avonmouth let to Farmfoods, which has been bought through a sale-and-leaseback for £26.4m; a 211,000 sq ft fully let urban logistics park in Wednesbury acquired from a pension fund for £25m; and five trade warehouses in Leeds, Derby, Swindon, Bolton and Farnham totalling 113,000 sq ft, acquired for £18.9m. Two of the warehouses are let to Travis Perkins, two to MKM and one to Jewson. The £50m of disposals consist of 10 former LXi assets and a former CTPT asset, which have been sold at a blended net initial yield of 7.2%. The disposals were a 169,000 sq ft Compass training centre in Milton Keynes sold for £23.7m; a 34,000 sq ft car showroom in York let to Vertu, which has been sold for £10.5m; a 34,000 sq ft self-storage asset in Basildon let to Lok’nStore, sold for £10m; a 18,000 sq ft Nissan car showroom in Doncaster sold for £2.5m; and seven care homes, sold for £3.2m. Chief executive Andrew Jones said: “We have been very clear on our desire to monetise some assets acquired from our corporate takeovers. We have now sold around £100m of LXi assets, with 13 of the 16 non-core CTPT assets also sold at an average of 14% above our original underwrite values.” He added: “We have successfully reinvested these proceeds into high-quality properties in stronger sectors that will deliver accelerated income growth.”