Rugby warehouse part of £40m property deals

LONDONMETRIC has bought eight distribution warehouses for nearly £40m as it seeks to increase its presence in the “last mile” distribution sector.

Six of the warehouses, including one in Rugby, have been bought from Helical in a £26m portfolio. The portfolio also includes three East Midlands properties – two in Northampton and one in Alfreton.

In a separate deal, LondonMetric has bought another two properties in Bicester and Crawley.

Andrew Jones, chief executive of LondonMetric, said: “These are important acquisitions as we continue to build critical mass within the ‘last mile’ distribution sector, which now extends to 19 assets across 1.2m sq ft.

 

“Structural market changes indicate that all these assets are highly reversionary. The demand/supply tension we are seeing for ‘last mile’ distribution remains attractive as reflected in the organic rental growth that we are capturing on our own ‘last mile’ assets.”

The Helical portfolio, which totalled 382,000 sq ft, reflect a net initial yield of 6.5% with a weighted unexpired term of more than seven years. 

Duncan Walker, investment director at Helical, said: “The sale of this portfolio, at a premium to the March book value, is the culmination of Helical’s asset management initiatives and shows our ability to bring some of the portfolio’s more mature assets to the market and deliver attractive returns.”