by Edward Simpkins
Matthew Oakeshott, of investment manager OLIM, cashed in a quarter of his £50m investment in more than 80 Lloyds Bank branches at Allsop’s Knightsbridge auction this week.
OLIM was acting on behalf of BAe Pension Fund and Value & Income Trust in the sale of 25 branches leased to Lloyds and four Woolworths stores. The sale realised £12.58m and only one lot, a multi-tenanted store in North Yorkshire, was unsold.
Oakeshott is well known for his enthusiasm for secondary stock, especially High Street shops, and OLIM is still the second largest owner of Woolworths stores. The Lloyds branches were snapped up by Oakeshott within two weeks of being offered earlier this year in a low-key private treaty sale for around £50m. Selected branches were sold as soon as the agreed period for retaining them expired, “in the interests of portfolio balance,” he said.
Speaking immediately after the sale, he said: “It looks to me like the net yield will be between 8% and 9%.” Most of those sold are in regional market towns such as Grimsby, Leominster or Royston, and were chosen to appeal to private buyers.
“The others were bought for long-term investment,” he said. “Today’s were mainly the smaller ones: they amount to less than a quarter of the portfolio by value.” He explained his investment policy as buying a wholesale number of properties at wholesale prices and selling a portion of them individually at market rates.
Hugh Stebbing, head of group property support at Lloyds, is selling a further 108 branches at auction on November 21. Reacting to the strength of the market, he said: “We’re delighted that they sold them all, the market is enthusiastic. We can look forward to the November auction with a degree of confidence. It is very exciting.”
Bidding was keen and auctioneer Duncan Moir stated: “We were motoring on some of the lots: there was a lot of enthusiasm.”
Sales at Allsop’s October 15 and 16 auction now stand at more than £30m, but the Midland Bank in High Street, Sittingbourne, is still available.
