LondonMetric sells 5 non-core office and retail assets for £38.5m

LondonMetric Property said on Monday that it has sold five non-core office and retail assets for a combined £38.5m, its share of which is £28m.

Two retail assets in North Shields and Llanelli have been sold in separate transactions for a total of £21.1m, of which LondonMetric’s share is £10.6m. The assets are held in the company’s joint venture with Universities Superannuation Scheme and are fully let to retailers including B&Q, Pets at Home, B&M, Tapi and Carpetright.

These sales are at an 8% surplus to the last reported book value, it said.

In three further transactions, two offices and a retail unit in Birmingham have been sold for £17.4m. The assets, originally purchased as part of the Mucklow acquisition in 2019, are fully let to Beiersdorf, the Highways Agency and J&S Accessories. These disposals are at a 1% surplus to the last reported book value, with completion of the largest asset disposal delayed until September.

LondonMetric said it has now sold 12 former Mucklow assets totalling more than £60m, including nearly half of the Mucklow office portfolio, delivering a total annualised return of 10.6%.

Chief executive Andrew Jones said: "As part of our portfolio refinement, we continue to dispose of non-core and mature assets at attractive prices, allowing us to re-invest into opportunities with greater certainty of income and income growth."