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Retail property investor Supermarket Income REIT has purchased a Tesco omnichannel supermarket in the Midlands for £38.3m.
Tesco has been operating the Worcester stor for more than 30 years, with the site made up of a 47,000 sq ft net sales area, a petrol filling station and 515 parking spaces.
The store is also an online hub for Tesco, operating nine home delivery vans and a click & collect facility.
It is being acquired from British Steel Pension Fund, with an unexpired lease term of 12 years, with annual upwards only RPI-linked rent reviews.
The acquisition is being funded from the first tranche of sales proceeds of Supermarket Income’s stake in the Sainsbury’s Reversion Portfolio (SRP), which consisted of 26 Sainsbury’s supermarkets and was sold by the investor earlier this year.
Ben Green, director of Atrato Capital, the investment adviser to Supermarket Income REIT plc, said: “This acquisition further strengthens Supermarket Income’s portfolio of top trading omnichannel supermarkets, evidencing our ability to redeploy the proceeds of the SRP sale at yields which are accretive to the portfolio.”
Last month, Supermarket Income highlighted an almost £250m drop in the value of its portfolio over six months amid rising UK interest rates.
The group’s half-year report said the fair value of its direct portfolio investments reduced by £248.1m in the six months to 31 December, representing a 13.3% like-for-like decline.
Morning update
Elsewhere this morning, The Grocer reveals all the details of Farmison’s rescue from administration by a consortium led by former Asda boss Andy Clarke.
The premium DTC butcher will restart trading in the coming weeks as a result of a deal finalised today (24 April).
Read the full story here at thegrocer.co.uk.
THG has appointed Sue Farr as a senior independent director with immediate effect.
Farr is an experienced FTSE 100, 250, Small Cap and AIM board member. Following a career in media, advertising and marketing, she has spent 16 years in various non-executive director roles.
Her current non-executive directorships include board seats at British American Tobacco, Lookers, Helical and Accsys Technologies.
Farr plans to step down from her role at Accsys at the forthcoming AGM having served for nine years.
During the past five years she has also held non-executive directorships at Dairy Crest and Millennium & Copthorne Hotels.
The appointment comes as THG is officially in a takeover period after receiving an approach from private equity firm Apollo Global Management.
Chairman Charles Allen said: “I am delighted that we have been able to attract someone of the calibre of Sue Farr, who has had an impressive executive career across a number of consumer, media and marketing businesses, and has since gone on to demonstrate her skills as an experienced senior independent director and committee chair.
“Building on the progress made over the last 12 months, this appointment is consistent with the board’s stated intention to continue to improve corporate governance and enhance its composition by improving independence and diversity.
“The board and I look forward to working with Sue and benefiting from her knowledge, skills and experience.”
Farr added: “I am pleased to be joining THG at such an exciting time for the group as it continues to grow and to scale globally. THG is a business I have long admired and I look forward to working with Charles and the rest of the board on this next stage in the group’s journey.”
The FTSE 100 starts the week down 0.2% to 7,898.88pts.
THG has jumped 8.3% to 96.6p after shoring up its board, while HelloFresh is up 5.3% to €25.60 and Cranswick is up 1.4% to 3,153p.
Early fallers include Hilton Food Group, down 4.4% to 645p, Bakkavor, down 1.3% to 94p, and Deliveroo, down 1% to 108.5p.
This week in the City
It is looking like a busy week as first quarter earnings season kicks off.
Coca-Cola is due to report Q1 results later today in the US.
Tomorrow starts with the latest monthly grocery sales figures and market share data from Kantar, while Primark owner Associated British Foods reports interims and Nestle and PepsiCo issue quarterly results.
Reckitt Benckiser updates on its first quarter on Wednesday and Vimto maker Nichols will also release a trading update.
The big news of the week comes on Thursday as Sainsbury’s reports full-year results. Unilever is also set to post a Q1 trading update on Thursday, which will be CEO Alan Jope’s final set of results before departing the group. In Europe, Carlsberg, HelloFresh and Delivery Hero all report Q1 numbers.
Amazon, Mondelez, Hershey and Keurig-Dr Pepper all issue Q1 figures over in the US on Thursday.
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