In QuotedData’s morning briefing 11 February 2022:
- AEW UK REIT (AEWU) has been granted planning consent for the demolition and development of a 527-unit student accommodation scheme at 225 Bath Street in Glasgow city centre, paving the way for the sale of the site to IQ Student Accommodation. The sale of the vacant office scheme and redeployment of the capital will see AEWU’s earnings increase and the occupancy rate in its portfolio to improve to 93.1%, from 89.0%.
- Helical (HLCL) has appointed a new chairman following the resignation of Richard Grant at the group’s 2022 AGM. Richard Cotton has been appointed independent non-executive chairman designate. Subject to shareholder approval, he will succeed Richard Grant, becoming chairman of the board following the conclusion of the 2022 AGM, scheduled to take place in July 2022. Richard Cotton joined the board of Helical as a non-executive director in March 2016 and became senior independent director in February 2018.
- Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust (SREI) has exchanged contracts to sell The Arc, a 44,602 sq ft office in Nottingham, for £13m. The disposal price represents a 39% premium to the 31 December 2021 independent valuation of £9.35m and reflects a net initial yield of 4.5%. Completion is scheduled on 28 February 2022.
- US Solar Fund (USF) has announced that it has exercised its option to acquire a further 25% interest in the 200MWDC Mount Signal 2 project, taking its total ownership of the Project to 50%. USF committed to acquire an initial 25% (Tranche One) of MS2 in December 2020 and had twelve months from the completion of Tranche One (which was in March 2021) to exercise its option over a second 25%. The purchase price for Tranche Two is $21m, taking USF’s total equity investment for 50% of the Project to $44m. On completion of Tranche Two, USF’s total portfolio will be 543 MWDC across 42 fully operational assets in five states of the US, with a weighted average investment-grade power purchase agreement (PPA) term of 14.7 years. USF will fund Tranche Two with available cash.
- British and American (BAF) has announced that Dominic Dreyfus, non-executive director and chairman of the Audit Committee has passed away after battling with illness for some time. Dominic has been a director of BAF since 1995 and its Audit Committee Chairman since its establishment in 2001. Dominic’s fellow board members and all his other colleagues wish to place on record their profound thanks for his long and outstanding service to the company.
We also have CC Japan Growth and Income’s annual results (it strongly outperformed a recovering Japanese market) and Round Hill Music Royalty’s C share conversion.