Member Article

LondonMetric sells Milton Keynes retail park in £22 million deal

LondonMetric Property Plc has disposed of a retail park in Milton Keynes and the conditional exchange of contracts for the acquisition of a new development site in Bedford, for a retail distribution led scheme.

The group has sold Cairngorm Retail Park in Milton Keynes to Royal London Asset Management for £21.8 million, reflecting a net initial yield of 6.10%.

LondonMetric purchased the 57,400 sq ft Park as part of the “Saturn” Portfolio of six regional retail parks which it acquired during a period of market illiquidity in January 2013.

The Park is currently let to DFS, Oak Furnitureland, ScS, Furniture Village and Carpetright. LondonMetric has also exchanged contracts to acquire a 37 acre site from Bedford Borough Council, which is currently zoned for distribution.

The site is capable of accommodating up to 750,000 sqft of distribution space.

The purchase is conditional on LondonMetric acquiring the necessary planning consents.

Andrew Jones, chief executive of LondonMetric, said: “These transactions are further evidence of our strategy to recycle capital out of assets where we have completed our business plans and invest the proceeds into opportunities where we can use our extensive property skills to deliver future value to shareholders.

“Following the recent sale of our Bishop Auckland development, the Bedford acquisition replenishes our development pipeline and provides us with the opportunity to create a high quality scheme opposite our existing Argos distribution centre.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .