LondonMetric sells seven long-income assets

LondonMetric Property announced the sale of seven long-income assets for £33.9m on Monday, with its share totalling £29.6m.

The FTSE 250 company said the sale reflected a blended net initial yield of 4.5% and a crystallised blended ungeared Internal rate of return of 10%, as well as a profit of 28% on cost.

It said the assets, which generate £1.4m per annum in rent, were fully let with a weighted average unexpired lease term of 14 years.

The assets included a 19,000 square foot Aldi store in Weymouth, sold for £6.8m, which LondonMetric developed in 2021 at a cost of £5.1m; a 53,000 square foot urban warehouse let to Restore Scan in Salford, sold for £6.6m, which LondonMetric acquired in 2016 for £4.7m; and a 42,000 square foot self-storage unit in Oldbury, sold for £5.7m, which LondonMetric acquired in 2019 for an allocated price of £4.2m.

They also included a 16,000 square foot Premier Inn in Ringwood, sold for £8.65m with a LondonMetric share of £4.3m, which the firm funded the development of in 2019 for £4.2m; a 22,000 square foot trade unit let to Jewson in Littlehampton, sold for £4m, which LondonMetric acquired in 2018 for an allocated price of £3.3m; and a portfolio of two IMO car washes sold for £2.2m, which LondonMetric acquired in 2019 for £1.7 million.

LondonMetric also announced the completion of the sale of a new M&S Foodhall in Derby for £6.2m, having first announced exchange of the sale in 2021.

The assets were sold at an average discount of 4.7% to their book value as at 30 September.

“With the investment market strengthening over the past few months, we have taken advantage of this improved liquidity to opportunistically sell down some of our more mature long income assets,” said chief executive officer Andrew Jones.

“These sales crystalise strong returns and have been transacted at attractive yields and narrow discounts to book values.”

At 1006 GMT, shares in LondonMetric Property were up 0.32% at 186.4p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.