European investor and asset manager M7 Real Estate announced on Thursday that it intends to list a £120 mln (€140 mln) retail warehouse portfolio on IPSX, the UK's newest regulated exchange for securitised commercial real estate.

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Croft

The portfolio would be transferred from M7 Real Estate Investment Partners VIII, allowing the circa 40 investors in the fund to benefit from transferring and onshoring their investment from a closed ended, Jersey domiciled private investment vehicle to an investment in a UK vehicle which offers daily liquidity via a public listing and benefits from the advantages of the UK’s REIT regime.
 
The portfolio comprises 18 retail warehouse properties located across the UK, assembled by M7, following the fund’s inception in July 2018. The 978,317 sq ft portfolio is fully let to a diversified base of 53 occupiers and has delivered consistently high rent collections prior to and since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Rent collections for Q2 2021 currently stand at 93% and are expected to revert to 100% in the coming quarters.
 
Upon Admission, M7 Regional E-Warehouse REIT will become the second vehicle to successfully launch on IPSX, following the IPO of Mailbox REIT in May of this year. IPSX is a Regulated Investment Exchange regulated by the FCA and is the world’s first such exchange dedicated to the initial public offering and secondary market trading of institutional grade commercial real estate assets.
 
Richard Croft, Executive, chairman of M7 Real Estate, said: 'We have already proved the concept of IPSX with Mailbox REIT which, since its IPO earlier this year, has traded consistently at a premium to its opening share price at launch, declared a maiden dividend in line with target and offered liquidity to investors where required. The proposed floatation of M7 Regional E-Warehouse allows us to build on that momentum by bringing to market a high-quality portfolio of retail warehouses that produces visible and growing income streams as well as the opportunity for capital appreciation. Retail or ‘e’ warehouses is one of the few segments of the retail market that has continued to perform well despite the woes experienced in other areas of the sector and it continues to offer investors the opportunity to take advantage of the yield arbitrage between industrial and retail warehousing.'