LGP acquires UK warehouse portfolio

Legal & General Property has purchased the Ptarmigan portfolio of four distribution warehouses from Henderson UK Property Trust for a total of £41 mln (€48 mln),

The acquisition was made for LGP's UK Property Unit Trust and represents a net initial yield of 9.5%.

The four assets are located in the cities of Banbury, Birmingham, Manchester and Northampton, and provide a combined total of 759,190 sq ft (70,500 m2).

With an average unexpired lease of 5.5 years, the portfolio is fully let to a range of occupiers including John Lewis, DHL, Aldi Stores and Corporate Express (trading as Staples).

'Given the shortage of supply in the distribution space in the UK, we consider this to be an attractive sector to invest in,' said Matt Jarvis, fund manager at LGP.

Marcus Langlands Pearse, director of property at Henderson Global Investors, added: 'We have held these properties for a number of years. The sale forms part of a strategic repositioning of the fund which we are undertaking in order to target longer let assets in order to enhance the defensive nature of our portfolio.'

Deloitte advised Legal & General Property and CBRE represented the Henderson UK Property Trust.