UK regeneration specialist Harworth Group has acquired off-market Saturn Park in Knowsley, Merseyside, for £26 mln (€29 mln) plus acquisition costs.
Situated on a 35.2 acre (14.2 ha) site, Saturn Park comprises 416,000 ft2 (38,650 m2) of modern warehouse space across three units with ancillary offices, plus 13.1 acres of open storage land, which together generate a passing rent of £2.14 mln per annum with a weighted average unexpired lease term to expiry of 5.25 years.
This reflects a net initial yield of 7.7% and a reversionary yield of 9.0%. The value of the gross assets subject to the transaction is £26 mln and the acquisition will be funded through existing financial resources, Harworth said.
Lynda Shillaw, chief executive of Harworth, said: 'This off-market transaction is an excellent use of our significant financial headroom to further improve the resilience and depth of our investment portfolio, whilst also providing clear asset management opportunities to generate future value gains.
'The acquisition also underlines our ongoing commitment to invest in our core regions and given the obvious synergies to the Port of Liverpool, it directly supports government efforts to rebalance the UK economy.'
The site’s warehouse space is let to two tenants including Singleton Trading, a specialist importer and distributor of toys and goods to the North West, which occupies two units totalling c. 317,600 ft2. The third c.77,000 ft2 unit is let to Relonchem, an independent pharmaceutical company.
our tenants occupy the majority of the open storage land across five leases, generating an annual passing rent of c. £628,000, whilst 10,500 ft2 of the 22,000 ft2 of office space is let to the NHS.
Harworth said it had plans to execute an asset management strategy at Saturn, including refurbishment works and enhanced marketing of the remaining vacant office space and land, whilst also exploring the potential for further development on the 4.25 acres of currently vacant land on the site.
