Harworth Group plc has acquired off-market Saturn Park in Knowsley, Merseyside, for €29.2m (£26m) plus acquisition costs. The acquisition is in line with Harworth’s strategy to grow its predominantly industrial investment portfolio through the acquisition of high yielding properties with inherent value and growth potential.
Situated on a 35.2-acre site, Saturn Park comprises c.416,000ft² of modern warehouse space across three units with ancillary offices, plus c.13.1 acres of open storage land, which together generate a passing rent of €2.4m (£2.14m) per annum with a WAULT to expiry of 5.25 years. This reflects a Net Initial Yield of c.7.7% and a reversionary yield of c.9.0%.
Located adjacent to Junction 4 of the M57, Saturn Park is conveniently positioned for access to The Port of Liverpool and the M58, M62 and M6 motorways. The site’s warehouse space is let to two tenants including Singleton Trading, a specialist importer and distributor of toys and goods to the North West, which occupies two units totalling c. 317,600ft². The third c.77,000ft² unit is let to Relonchem, an independent pharmaceutical company. Four tenants occupy the majority of the open storage land across five leases, generating annual passing rent of c.€706,361 (£628,000), whilst c. 10,500ft² of the 22,000ft² of office space is let to the NHS.
Lynda Shillaw, Chief Executive of Harworth, said: “This off-market transaction is an excellent use of our significant financial headroom to further improve the resilience and depth of our investment portfolio, whilst also providing clear asset management opportunities to generate future value gains. The acquisition also underlines our ongoing commitment to invest in our core regions and given the obvious synergies to the Port of Liverpool, it directly supports Government efforts to rebalance the UK economy.”
