Land Securities announces that it has exchanged contracts to acquire Lxb, a private specialist retail warehouse and supermarket investor, for a cash consideration of approximately £360m.
The acquisition comprises:
- Two retail warehouse assets:
- Bracknell, a 165,000 ft² multi-tenanted 8 unit retail warehouse park
- Chester, a 150,500 ft² multi-tenanted 10 unit retail warehouse park
- A partnership interest in the A2 joint venture with Deutsche Asset Management which owns two retail warehouse parks at Crayford, Greater London and Strood, Kent
- Ten supermarket assets some of which also have additional retail warehouse units.
All 14 assets benefit from open A1 planning consents. The retail warehouse properties produce circa £6.3m rental income per annum (including the share of the rental income in the A2 joint venture) with an annual income of circa £9.0m from the supermarkets assets. The portfolio is 26% reversionary, based on the current configuration of the units.
Following the acquisition Land Securities will own 30 retail warehouse parks and 12 supermarket assets. Lxb's management will retain the Lxb name and in a separate agreement with Land Securities will be providing strategic asset management services for the supermarket portfolio. No Lxb employees will transfer to Land Securities.
Commenting on the acquisition, Francis Salway, Group Chief Executive of Land Securities, said: "We believe that certain segments of the out of town retail market, particularly supermarkets and open A1 parks, will deliver the strongest future growth and it is exactly these areas of the retail market that we are capturing through this acquisition building upon our market leading position in UK retail. We are excited by the prospects
offered by this acquisition and look forward to building on our relationship with Lxb and Deutsche as we exploit the potential inherent in the portfolio."
Source: Land Securities
