NewRiver Retail buys South East London shopping centre, retail park

NewRiver Retail has completed the acquisition of a shopping centre and retail park in Bexleyheath, south east London, for £120.3m.

The real estate investment trust said its acquisition of the Broadway Shopping Centre and Broadway Square Retail Park equates to a net initial yield of 6.7% and an equivalent yield of 7%, with net rental income at purchase of £8.16m per year.

NewRiver said the Bexleyheath assets, which were bought from an unnamed institutional vendor using cash resources, are 100% occupied, with the Broadway Shopping Centre anchored by high quality retailers such as Marks and Spencer, H&M, New Look, Argos and Boots.

The adjacent Broadway Square Retail Park includes tenants such as Sainsbury's, Poundland, JD Sports and TK Maxx.

Chief executive officer David Lockhart said: “The acquisition represents our first significant acquisition within the M25 and is our largest single shopping centre acquisition to date. This is an excellent addition to our portfolio and we are confident that our proven active asset management model will drive significant long term value for our shareholders."

"Following the acquisition of the Neptune shopping centre portfolio in January this year for £108 million, this second major acquisition deploys the majority of the proceeds of our £150m equity raise completed in January 2016, demonstrating our ability to swiftly deploy fresh capital for strategically selected assets that meet our returns criteria."

At 1005 BST, shares were down 0.7% to 331.10p.