M7 Multi-Let REIT, a newly established closed-ended investment company, announces its intention to raise up to €335.98m (£300m) by way of a placing an offer for subscription and intermediaries offer of ordinary shares in the capital of the company at an issue price of 100 pence per share. The Issue is conditional upon the Minimum Net Proceeds of €164.6m (£147m) being raised.
The Company will apply for admission of its Ordinary Shares to the premium listing segment of the Official List of the UK Listing Authority and to trading on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange.
M7 Real Estate Financial Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of M7 Real Estate, will act as AIFM and investment manager to the Group. M7 Real Estate will act as asset manager to the Group.
Akur Limited is acting as financial adviser and Barclays Bank is acting as Sponsor, global co-ordinator and bookrunner in relation to the Issue. Barclays and Scott Harris UK are acting as intermediaries offer advisers.
The Company intends to become a real estate investment trust to which Part 12 of the UK Corporate Tax Act 2010 applies.
Stephen Smith, Chairman of M7 Multi-Let REIT plc, commented: “M7 Multi-Let REIT allows investors the opportunity to benefit from stable income streams which the UK multi-let sector offers, as well as the potential for enhanced returns that can be achieved through the active asset management initiatives that M7 has a strong track record of delivering. The UK private sector is dominated by SMEs, which have consistently demonstrated more stable growth than large businesses and UK multi-let regional real estate assets play a critical part in facilitating that growth. At the same time, the sector is often overlooked by investors, being considered by some as inefficient due to the small individual lot sizes and/or because of the requirement for active and intensive management. This provides what we believe is a compelling opportunity to acquire real estate at attractive yields, with value-add potential and often at below replacement cost.”
Richard Croft, Chief Executive Officer of M7 Real Estate, commented: “In the eight years since we founded M7 we have used our experience in this sector to build a €4.6bn portfolio of multi-let assets, which we currently manage on behalf of some of the world’s largest and best known real estate investors. By leveraging our team’s extensive knowledge, our proprietary data and market-leading information and data management systems, M7 has a strong track record of delivering above market average returns by focusing on regional and off-market opportunities in the smaller, regional multi-let sector. M7 Multi-Let REIT has already conditionally agreed to acquire an initial €134.2m (£119.9m) portfolio of income-producing assets, meaning that the REIT can begin generating returns for investors from Admission, and we believe we can extract more value from these assets. We have also identified a €447.9m (£400m) pipeline of further investment opportunities which puts us on course to fully deploy the remaining proceeds within nine months following Admission. Our co-investment and innovative rental income based fee structure underline both our alignment with other shareholders and the confidence we have in the returns we can deliver.”
