NewRiver REIT lifts first quarter divi by 5%

NewRiver Real Estate Investment Trust increased its first quarter dividend by 5% as it said it was “well placed” to deliver sustainable returns to shareholders.

The quarterly payout was lifted to 5.25p a share.

“Looking ahead, we have significant firepower which we will deploy into accretive acquisition opportunities and our inbuilt risk-controlled development pipeline,” the company said.

NewRiver said the “highlight” of the period was its over-subscribed £225m equity raising, which was completed at a 15% premium to March 2017 net asset value.

“Following the equity raise, we have seen continued momentum across the business, having exchanged contracts to acquire the remaining units in our BRAVO joint venture for £59.4m million, and made substantial progress across our risk-controlled development pipeline, most recently obtaining planning consent for our major mixed-use regeneration in Cowley, Oxford,” the company added.

The company said it had made significant progress made on debt refinancing, with the timetable accelerated by increased balance sheet scale.

NewRiver said it aimed to become an unsecured borrower with the key objectives including a reduced cost of debt, increased flexibility and an increased debt maturity.

This programme was expected to be completed in the first half the 2018 financial year “with minimal breakage costs”, it added.