10th Dec 2019 09:32
(Alliance News) - SEGRO PLC on Tuesday said it has agreed a deal to sell a portfolio of UK big box warehouses worth GBP241 million to a fund advised by Morgan Stanley's real estate investment arm.
The FTSE 100 property investment company said the sale of the seven properties are expected to be completed by the end of the year, with the price being in line with the June 2019 book value.
Segro said: "SEGRO has exchanged contracts to sell a portfolio of UK big box warehouses for GBP241 million to a fund advised by Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing, acting through a controlled subsidiary in joint venture with Thor Equities Group.
"The portfolio comprises seven stand-alone big box warehouses with a total floor space of 203,400 square metres."
The current passing rent of the portfolio is GBP10.1 million and it has a combined vacancy rate of just under 19%, the company added.
Of the seven properties, two of the properties are located in Northamptonshire, two in Leicestershire, one in Warwickshire, another in Hertfordshire and one in Burton, Staffordshire.
One of the Leicestershire units, the Magna Park site in Lutterworth, is one of the largest distribution centres in Europe and is located in an area dubbed as England's "Golden Triangle", due to it being close to the centre of the country.
Occupiers of the site include Walmart Inc's Asda, courier DHL International GmbH and UK retailer Argos Ltd, owned by J Sainsbury PLC.
SEGRO Chief Investment Officer Phil Redding said: "The sale of these assets marks the end of a successful period of ownership by SEGRO, generating a blended ungeared internal rate of return since acquisition of approximately 11%. The proceeds will be recycled into our existing and future development programme, including UK big box logistics parks developed using the Roxhill platform which we acquired last year."
SEGRO shares were down 1.6% at 864.00 pence each in London on Tuesday morning.
By Eric Cunha; [email protected]
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