LondonMetric offloads Lidl supermarket in £85m sell-off
LondonMetric Property has sold a Lidl supermarket with an unexpired lease term of 17 years in Basildon, Essex, for £8.8m.
The transaction was completed as part of a wider sell-off by LondonMetric, which saw it dispose of seven assets for a total of £85m, reflecting a net initial yield of 5.3%.
Also included in the sales were two Ramsay hospitals for £59.1m, two logistics warehouses for £13m, and two Travelodge hotels for £4.1m.
Following these disposals, LondonMetric has now sold 32 assets for a total of £175m this financial year.
The group has also made acquisitions in the year totalling £62m, reflecting a yield of 5.9%, and include a recently signed £20m forward funding of a 50,000 sq ft foodstore in Nuneaton, pre-let to Tesco on a 20-year lease.
LondonMetric said it is also under offer on £140m of additional acquisitions at a yield in excess of 6%, primarily comprising long-let assets with occupiers including Lidl, M&S, Tesco, and Waitrose.
Andrew Jones, chief executive of LondonMetric, said: “Despite a challenging macroeconomic backdrop, we have made excellent progress in selling further non-core assets over the past two months. Our activity has helped reduce our Ramsay exposure and further improve our NNN income quality, longevity and granularity.
“Whilst the investment market is generally quieter over the summer, we have been heavily engaged on reinvestment opportunities that have higher growth prospects, particularly those emanating from pension funds. We expect to transact on a number of these shortly.”