LondonMetric offloads £31m of retail assets
LondonMetric Property has completed the sale of seven retail properties in separate transactions for £31.3m.
The sales include £18.3m of ‘non-core’ former LXi REIT assets, following the £6.2bn merger between the two businesses earlier this year.
The sales comprised:
- A 106,000 sq ft Asda foodstore in Scotland, which was sold for £10.5m;
- A 41,000 sq ft retail park in Ipswich – believed to be Spenhill Retail Park – let to Wickes, Topps Tiles, McDonalds, and Costa, sold for £10.2m;
- Two former Cazoo showrooms in Edinburgh and Cardiff, sold for £6.4m;
- A B&M retail store in Stourbridge, sold for £2.8m;
- A Travelodge hotel and a pub sold for £1.4m.
LondonMetric said the sales reflected a blended net initial yield of 7.0% and a 3% profit over prevailing book values.
Separately, LondonMetric has also acquired six urban warehouse assets for £45m.
Andrew Jones, chief executive of LondonMetric, said: “We are delighted to have exited these non-core assets and reinvested the proceeds into much higher quality assets, which offer superior rental growth potential.
“We are continually looking to upgrade the quality of our portfolio and exit lower growth assets outside of our core sectors or those that do not meet our return criteria. As such, we expect to announce further disposals shortly.”