Helical boosts income with £17m Yorkshire retail park deal
HELICAL Bar has completed the acquisition of Huddersfield Retail Park for £17m, a net initial yield of 7.2%.
Around £11m of the acquisition was funded through Helical’s credit facility with Barclays Bank with the remainder provided through existing cash resources.
The property was sold by administrators at PWC appointed over Castlemore Securities and their real estate strategy for the site was worked up with Cordatus Real Estate and PWC’s real estate team.
The 96,977 sq ft property, which benefits from Open A1 planning consent, comprises two terraces of three units on a 6.5 acre site offering 304 car parking spaces.
The park is fully let to a strong selection of retailers including Matalan, Dunelm, Aldi and B&M on long leases (the weighted average unexpired lease term is 12 years without breaks, 10 years including breaks).
Five of the six units were let between 2009 and 2012 and so the rents are low (an average of circa £13 psf), offering opportunities for future rental growth. In addition, a number of the leases have fixed increases.
The acquisition is the third purchase by Helical within the last eight weeks, following the purchases of New Loom House and Maple House in London’s tech belt. This means the company has now invested around £70m post its retail bond issue into opportunities where it expects good rental growth.
Jack Pitman, investment director at Helical Bar said: “This was an opportunity to buy a well-let retail park let off low rents set during the recession. The 7.2% yield provides a balance to the circa £53m of lower yielding central London assets Helical has bought over the summer.”
Wilkinson Williams advised Helical Bar and Edgerley Simpson Howe advised the vendor.
