LondonMetric has announced a proposed fund raise of £175m, through a placing and retail offer (through PrimaryBid), to fund a pipeline of logistics acquisitions.
The company said that it intends to use the proceeds of the raise, the price of which has yet to be determined, to acquired committed and under offer deals that total around £282m. These include:
- £39m to fund a committed and pre-let logistics development asset;
- around £122m to acquire a South East focused portfolio of 15 assets which is 75% logistics and 25% long income;
- around £53m to forward fund a pre-let logistics development;
- around £31m to fund urban logistics redevelopment opportunities;
- around £22m to fund a grocery and logistics sale & leaseback portfolio; and
- around £15m to fund a pre-let grocery development asset.
It added that it expects to deploy the proceeds within three months and the investments to be earnings enhancing in the next financial year.
Andrew Jones, chief executive, said: “The performance of our favoured sectors, logistics and grocery-led long income, continue to benefit from structural tailwinds that show no sign of abating. As we look to scale our platform further, we have identified an attractive pipeline of opportunities which are underpinned by the technological and demographic shifts that support our investment strategy.
“We expect to deploy the proceeds of the placing quickly into specific opportunities which will further enhance our earnings and provide additional underpinning to our covered and progressive dividend.”
LondonMetric also released half-year results today in which EPRA net tangible assets (NTA) was up 12.1% to 213.4p per share in the six months to 30 September. This was driven by a portfolio valuation uplift of 14.8% to £2.97bn.
EPRA earnings were up 4.5% to £44.2m (2020: £42.3m) and 2.5% on a per share basis to 4.87p. Dividends for the period increased 4.8% to 4.4p per share, which is 111% covered by earnings, including a second quarterly dividend declared today of 2.2p per share.
LMP : LondonMetric looks to raise £175m in placing