Ashtenne industrial properties acquired in £103.7m deal
COMMERCIAL property owner Ashtenne – which has a base in Solihull – has sold a further £103.7m of units in its Ashtenne Industrial Fund (AIF) to real estate investment firm Hansteen Holdings.
London-based Hansteen’s purchase represents 35.7% of the fund and takes its holding in it up to 76.5%.
The acquisition represents £156.8m of UK industrial property valued at a yield of 8.3%.
In September 2013 Hansteen invested £53m in AIF units representing 27.5% and assumed the asset management contract of the fund.
Since then it has acquired additional stakes to take its holding to 40.8% before the acquisition announced today
At 30 June 2015, the AIF portfolio comprised more than 2,300 units on 237 individual estates with a passing rent of £36.2m, a vacancy of 13.5% and a gross asset value of the properties of £439.3m.
Ashtenne’s property portfolio in the West Midlands includes the Ashtenne Business Centre in Redditch, the Autobase Industrial Park in Tividale, Bordesley Green Trading Estate in Birmingham and the Dudley Port Business Centre.
Ian Watson, joint chief executive of Hansteen, said: “The acquisition of these AIF units is an exceptional opportunity both in terms of scale and price in a very competitive UK market and also crystallises a c.£6m uplift.
“This acquisition and placing, for which we have received strong indications of support, will be earnings and NAV accretive in the current financial year and beyond.”
