Industrial property investor Hansteen is acquiring a UK portfolio of mixed-use properties for 拢53.7m (鈧�60.2m).
Hansteen said it has agreed to buy the portfolio of 34 properties from listed peer St Modwen Properties. The assets are located throughout the UK with a focus on the North West and the West Midlands.
Hansteen said it will fund the deal with current cash resources and a drawdown under the revolving credit facility from the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The portfolio provides 1.4m square foot of accommodation, let to more than 200 tenants producing a current rent of 拢5.25m annum. Around 85,000sqft is vacant.
Morgan Jones and Ian Watson, joint chief executives of Hansteen, said: 鈥淭his portfolio fits perfectly with our buying criteria.
鈥淭here are a number of asset management opportunities and initiatives across the portfolio which provide us with the opportunity to increase the rent roll and create additional value.鈥�
Rupert Wood, a property director and asset management at St. Modwen, said the disposal is in line with St. Modwen鈥檚 strategic objective to refocus its portfolio on fewer, larger assets with a target to sell 拢150m to 拢175m of retail and small assets during 2018.
鈥淲e have now exchanged contracts to sell 拢144m of these assets so far this year and, combined with previous disposals, we have now sold 拢76m of the around 拢100m of small assets earmarked for sale when we announced our new strategy just over a year ago.
鈥滱s planned, we intend to reinvest the disposal proceeds into our industrial/logistics pipeline which, with a yield on incremental capex of around 9% and limited operating costs, is expected to deliver a marked pick-up in net rental income over the long term,鈥� Wood said.
