London property company invests £73m in Waitrose and Ocado locations

A London property company has announced an investment of more than £70m in two acquisitions.

LondonMetric Property has acquired a portfolio of five food stores let to Waitrose on new 20 year leases for £62m, as well as a warehouse let to Ocado for £10.9m.

The company said that together, the acquisitions will generate a total rent of £3.34m annually.

Waitrose has confirmed that the acquisition of its locations will not affect customers or jobs in the stores, which are in Keynsham, Malmesbury, Paddock Wood, Towcester and Yateley.

Andrew Jones, chief executive of LondonMetric, commented: “We live in a world of continuing disruption which is exposing both winning and losing strategies almost on a daily basis.

“These are high quality and well located assets in structurally supported sectors, let to strong occupiers that offer secure triple net income and the certainty of income growth.

“These investments will increase our exposure further to the winning sectors and occupiers, with Waitrose now a top ten occupier and Ocado a new addition to our customer base.

“In a macro environment characterised by zero interest rates, well let properties are becoming increasingly sought after.

“Following our other long income acquisitions announced earlier in the month, we have now invested £83m of the £120m raised in our equity placing and are progressing well on other opportunities that have similarly attractive qualities.”