Member Article

Newcastle’s Grainger invests £58 million in regional property portfolio

Newcastle-based Grainger plc, the UK’s largest listed residential property owner and manager, today announces that it has exchanged contracts for the acquisition of a regional tenanted residential property portfolio for c.£58 million from Sarunas Properties Limited, a company owned by the Pervaiz Naviede Family Trust.

The transaction brings the company’s total investment into residential assets in the UK regions to c.£76 million in recent months, and represents over 900 residential units.

The portfolio comprises 614 residential properties, which are predominantly tenanted and subject to Assured Shorthold Tenancies (AST’s), located in Cambridgeshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Merseyside and Nottinghamshire, as well as a small proportion of properties in Scotland.

The purchase price of the portfolio is the investment value of the properties at the date of acquisition and represents a discount to their c.£66 million vacant possession value. The portfolio presently generates an annual gross rent of c.£4.5 million.

It provides significant opportunities for value enhancement through a combination of refurbishment, active asset management and capital realisation, and is anticipated to deliver a double digit total return over the next five years.

The remainder of the company’s investment over the past few months has comprised smaller portfolio acquisitions across the UK, in line with Grainger’s normal investment strategy. In total the recent acquisitions in the UK regions of c.£76 million will generate nearly £6 million of additional gross rent for the Company annually.

This acquisition follows on from the company’s stated ambition set out at its full year results in November 2014 to invest more heavily into the UK regions outside of London and the South East and demonstrates the company’s ability to act on market opportunities.

Chief Executive of Grainger plc, Andrew Cunningham, said: “Today’s acquisition and our wider investment activity over the last month support our strategy of increasing investment into the regions where we are seeing attractive investment opportunities, while capitalising on the improving momentum of the UK economy.”

Spokesperson for the Pervaiz Naviede Family Trust, Rudi Falla, said: “This residential property portfolio has taken us five years to assemble, is firmly established and fully tenanted, therefore, we feel this is an appropriate time to sell in order for us to explore new opportunities.

“We are delighted to be handing it over to one of the UK’s largest residential property businesses and have every confidence that Grainger will continue to add value to the portfolio.”

The portfolio acquisition is expected to complete in May 2015 and it will be acquired using the Company’s existing financing facilities.