UK REIT Supermarket Income confirmed on Friday that it is in negotiations to acquire a portfolio of assets via a sale and leaseback transaction with a major grocery operator.
British media reported earlier this week that the group is buying a £75 mln portfolio of assets from Waitrose.
So far during the lockdown, Waitrose have completed £140 mln worth of sale and leaseback transactions, most recently agreeing to sell and leaseback five stores to LondonMetric Properties for £62 mln.
‘Obviously there is appetite for such transactions from grocers and given supermarket properties' secure income credentials, an increasing numbers of willing buyers,’ commented Goodbody’s analyst Colm Lauder.
Separately, Supermarket REIT said that it has collected 100% of its June 2020 quarterly billed rents from its occupier base of Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons.
This is in stark contrast to the wider UK retail property market where initial data suggests less than one seventh was collected on time, a sizable deterioration on the second quarter when one fifth was collected.
