In QuotedData’s morning briefing 24 September 2024:

• The boards of NewRiver REIT (NRR) and Capital & Regional (CAL) have reached agreement on the terms of a deal that would see NRR acquire CAL and are recommending shareholders of both companies to vote in favour of it. The deal would see each CAL share receive 31.25p in cash and 0.41946 new NRR shares. This valued CAL at £147m (or 62.5p per share) at the date at which interest in the company started in May. An increase in NRR’s share price since has seen the value of the bid increase to £154.7m (or 65.77p per share). Further details and rationale for the deal can be found here.
• LondonMetric (LMP) has appointed Darren Richards to the newly created role of chief investment officer. Richards joins from British Land.
• In turn, British Land (BLND) has replaced Richards with Kelly Cleveland, currently head of strategy and investment at the company, who has been appointed to a new combined role of head of real estate and investment.
• abrdn Property Income Trust (API) has sold 101 Princess Street, an office in Manchester, for £4.3m – at a discount of 2.3% to the June 2024 valuation (11.3% below the March 2024 valuation).
• BioPharma Credit (BPCR) announced its interim results for the six months to 30 June 2024. The company delivered a shareholder total return of 5.4% while generating net revenue per share of 6.15 cents, substantially covering the annual dividend target of 7 cents.  As a reminder, the company’s policy is to pay special dividends for any excess income over the 7.0 cent annual dividend.  Total dividends paid for calendar 2022 and 2023 were 13.1 and 10.2 cents, respectively. During the period, BPCR bought back 83,579,397 shares at a cost of $76.1m and post period end an additional 20,463,663 shares at a cost of $18.8m giving total shares bought back year to date of 104,043,060 shares at a cost of $94.9m