Sainsbury's pays £431m for control of store investment vehicles

Sainsbury's on Tuesday said it was paying £430.9m to take full ownership of the Highbury and Dragon store investment vehicles from Supermarket Income REIT.

Sainsbury's has held a 49% stake in the two vehicles since the joint venture was created in 2000. It contains the freeholds of 26 stores leased to the UK supermarket chain.

Under the deal, Sainsbury's will buy the freeholds of 21 stores which will continue to be operated as Sainsbury's supermarkets. The remaining five stores will be sold by Sainsbury's, four of which it will lease back.

Sainsbury's has also agreed to fully fund Highbury and Dragon's bond redemptions of £170.5m on March 20 and 130.4m on July 13. The acquisition and bond redemptions would be funded by cash resources and a committed unsecured term facility.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com