Safestore in deal to buy Space Maker for up to £44m

Self storage firm Safestore said it had agreed an option to take over Space Maker for up to £44.4m.

The deal means Safestore will pay £43m in cash up front with the rest deferred for three years conditional on targets being met.

Space Maker is the ninth largest self-storage portfolio in the UK with 12 stores located in Bournemouth (two stores), Colchester, Redhill, Romford, Brentford, Chelmsford, Exeter, Leeds, Plymouth, Portsmouth and Poole, and has a built out lettable area of around 496,000 sq ft.

Six of the stores are freehold or long leasehold and six are leasehold stores with an average remaining lease length of 16.6 years.

"With the acquisition of our new freehold site to the east of Paris in Marnes-la-Vallée, which we announced last month, these transactions demonstrate our ability to take advantage of selected development and acquisition opportunities, supported by our strong balance sheet," said Safestore chief executive Frederic Vecchioli.

"The acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to group earnings per share from completion and will support the group's future dividend capacity.