CT Property trust completes sale to LondonMetric Property
'This opportunistic acquisition will benefit both sets of shareholders and provide greater liquidity,' LondonMetric said.
As part of the deal, 105.6 million new LondonMetric shares were admitted to the London Stock Exchange today.
LMP said the acquisition added a «high quality and complementary portfolio of assets» with strong management opportunities and rental reversion potential.
The deal will also offer «material» cost savings, economies of scale and an «attractive» debt structure, it argued, as the trust expects the acquisition to be earnings accretive.
CT Property trust unveils timeline for planned acquisition
Following completion, LMP's portfolio value has increased to £3.2bn and will generate £160m of renal income a year. The portfolio average lease length is 11 years with a 99% occupancy rate and «attractive growth prospects», it said, due to its high weighting to urban logistics, which accounts for about 44% of assets.
Andrew Jones, CEO of LondonMetric, said: «This opportunistic acquisition will benefit both sets of shareholders and provide greater liquidity. We will immediately begin to integrate the CTPT portfolio assets and work towards disposing of assets that are deemed non-core to our strategy.»
The £198.6m acquisition was first announced on 24 May, with the offer price representing a 34.3% premium on CTPT's share price.
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CTPT was formed in 2013 from the merger of IRP Property Investments and ISIS Property trust, and has suffered a consistently wide discount to NAV for years.
However, the trust has strongly outperformed the sector over the last thee years, growing 64.7% compared with 8.8% of the AIC Property — UK Commercial sector.
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