Urban Logistics raising £108m to progress acquisition pipeline
Urban Logistics Reit
100.80p
16:40 10/01/25
Last-mile logistics property investor Urban Logistics announced plans to raise a total of £108m on Wednesday, in order to progress its pipeline of “attractive opportunities”.
FTSE AIM 100
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16:40 10/01/25
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16:50 10/01/25
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The AIM-traded real estate investment trust said it would conduct a placing of new shares at a price of 155p each, and make an offer on the ‘PrimaryBid’ platform of up to four million new shares at the same price, to provide retail investors with an opportunity to participate in the equity fundraise.
It said it intended to issue a total of 69.8 million new shares under the placing and the PrimaryBid offer, raising gross proceeds of about £108m.
Urban Logistics said the price of 155p per share represented a discount of 5.2% to its closing share price on 29 June, and a 3.5% premium to its adjusted EPRA net tangible assets as at 31 March.
The board said its investment manager had identified a “significant” pipeline of “attractive” investment opportunities, the majority of which were sourced off-market, with an average net initial yield of 6.1%.
Net proceeds of the placing and the PrimaryBid offer were expected to be deployed within three months of the receipt of funds, with the underlying transactions anticipated to be accretive to earnings per share from the first full financial year after the fundraise.
Admission of placing and PrimaryBid shares to trading on AIM was expected on or around 13 July.
“Focusing on mid-box, single let properties, Urban Logistics has built a high-quality portfolio of last mile or last touch urban logistics assets,” the board said in its statement.
“Urban Logistics is the only company trading on the London Stock Exchange with such a focus.”
It said last-mile real estate around cities and towns was a growing part of the business infrastructure of the company's tenant base, which was primarily made up of third party logistics operators and businesses, focusing on essentials and staples such as pharmaceuticals and food.
“In the period since initial public offering in 2016, Urban Logistics has produced an annual average total accounting return of 13.9% and has grown its portfolio to around £500m.
“82 assets have been acquired since IPO on an average purchase yield of 6.4%.”
At 0834 BST, shares in Urban Logistics REIT were down 3.5% at 157.78p.