A 3% improvement in net asset value from £147.2m to £151.8m has boosted confidence at regional investor AEW UK REIT.
The business, which also saw its NAV total return recover from 1.46% at 30 September to 5.53% at the end of 2020, said the recovery was due to its “ongoing drive to maximise value from the assets’ business plans”.
Those plans include the sale of Sandford House, an office building in Solihull, on which it has exchanged contracts for a sale 9% above its valuation and 94% higher than its acquisition price. AEW said it has not spent any capital on the building since its acquisition and that it had signed a new 15-year lease on the building in June last year, increasing its rental income by 30%.
AEW’s NAV recovery was also boosted by its 56% weighting towards warehousing and industrial. The firm expanded its industrial portfolio during the final quarter of the year with the acquisition of Westlands Distribution Park in Weston Super Mare for £5.4m.
Portfolio manager Laura Elkin said she expected the company to continue to be acquisitive this year.
“Based on our current pipeline, we expect the first half of 2021 to provide some very attractive investment opportunities, a number of which we are already pursuing,” she said.
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