Investment Trust Insider on Aberdeen Standard European Logistics – James Carthew: diluted Eurobox interest lifts Aberdeen
The seismic shift underway in the way we shop has been devastating for the UK’s high streets and shopping malls but has created new opportunities for investors providing the plumbing behind the growth in ecommerce.
Here in the UK, we have embraced online shopping to a greater extent even than the US – in 2017, we made almost 18% of our purchases online against 15% for the States. For Europe though, with the exception of Germany, the growth in ecommerce has a long way to go with equivalent figures for Spain, Poland and Italy were below 5%.
There is a fairly wide choice of funds and property companies available if you want to invest in the UK logistics sector. However, possibly reflecting that Europe is at an earlier stage than the UK, real estate investment trusts focused on continental Europe are thinner on the ground. Two dedicated funds, Aberdeen Standard European Logistics Income (ASLI) and Tritax EuroBox (EBOX), offer the purest exposure.
ASLI launched in December 2017 with £187.5 million. It has deployed all of its flotation proceeds and some debt across a diverse portfolio of 10 logistics assets in five countries. It has met its 3p initial dividend target and is getting ready to expand. Its shares trade at a modest 3% premium to their end-of-December net asset value (NAV). With the benefit of its debt facilities, it probably has enough left in the kitty to make one more acquisition.
EBOX, which was later to the party, launched last July 2018 and raised £300 million. It has ploughed all of that and some debt into eight assets in five countries. Six are existing buildings and two are under construction. We haven’t yet seen an NAV announcement from EBOX but results are due next Thursday.
It has said that the value of standing assets is… read more here