25th Jul 2014 11:00
LONDON (Alliance News) - Real estate investors Helical Bar PLC Friday said it has made an "excellent" start to its new financial year, and following the sale of a number of assets and a recent GBP100 million convertible bond issue, it has over GBP230 million in "firepower" to fund property acquisitions and its central London development programme.
"We now have considerable resources to increase our holdings of cash generative investment assets, primarily expected to be offices in regional cities and industrial/distribution warehouses," Chief Executive Michael Slade said. "At the same time we are able to allocate additional capital to our existing central London development programme as well as finance new opportunities."
In an interim management statement for the period April 1 to date, the company said it has been active in the market during the period and acquired a mixed-use portfolio of ten properties for GBP40.2 million. The portfolio, comprising 633,000 square feet of modern high bay logistics facilities and regional headquarter office space, generates around GBP4.1 million of gross rental income a year.
Helical Bar said it also disposed of a number of assets, the biggest being the Guineas Shopping Centre in Newmarket for GBP18.2 million.
It also entered into a joint venture with Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan to fund a 275,000 square foot office development in London.
Since the beginning of April, the company has raised GBP100 million through the issue of an unsecured five year 4% convertible bond with a conversion price of 496.94 pence. It has also drawn down GBP38 million to fund the acquisition of a mixed use portfolio, GBP4 million to fund expenditure on the retirement village development programme, and GBP4 million to refinance an office investment in Glasgow.
At the end of June, the company's bank facilities included GBP308.4 million of investment facilities of which GBP235.4 million was drawn down, leaving GBP50 million to fund future acquisitions and GBP23 million to fund capital expenditure.
Helical Bar shares were quoted up 0.6% at 359.00 pence late Friday morning.
By Anthony Tshibangu; [email protected]; @AnthonyAllNews
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