Global property firm snaps up industrial estate in Huddersfield

A GLOBAL property firm which is listed on the Johannesburg stock exchange has snapped up an industrial site in Yorkshire.
Julian Carey, group property director of StenpropJulian Carey, group property director of Stenprop
Julian Carey, group property director of Stenprop

Stenprop has acquired a fully-let industrial estate in Huddersfield for £5.8 million as part of its strategy of building up a portfolio of UK multi-let industrial property.

Ellis Hill Industrial Estate is based on Leeds Road, Huddersfield and comprises six units, totalling 76,140 sq ft of space, with good yards. The tenants include Pendragon, trading as Mercedes Benz, Goodman Retail, trading as Volkswagen, Sicame UK and St Gobain.

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Julian Carey, the group property director of Stenprop, said: “Ellis Hill fits perfectly with our strategic objective of investing in multi-let industrial in the UK in areas with good supply-demand characteristics.

“The estate is only around 10 years old and benefits from being fully let to companies with strong covenants, while the acquisition price of £76/sq ft reflects a significant discount to replacement cost.

“A number of the tenants on the estate are associated with the car dealerships across the road and there is the potential to develop higher value uses on some of the surplus land fronting the A62, which previously had planning consent for an additional 15,000 sq ft”.

The estate is the fifth acquired by Stenprop since its purchase of the Industrials.co.uk portfolio for £127 million in June 2017. Stenprop is seeking a further £100 million of multi-let industrial opportunities in the UK during 2018. Stenprop was represented by Ryden and the vendor was represented by Wimbush Real Estate. Stenprop has assets in the UK, Germany and Switzerland.

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The company has identified £460 million of non-core assets to sell over the next two years and has a target to acquire at least £220 million of multi-let industrial assets from those proceeds, with the balance of equity realised being used to reduce overall debt level. It completed the sale of an office building in Pilgrim Street, London, in January 2018 for £80 million, which forms part of the planned sales programme.

Conversion to a UK REIT and a London listing are planned for the first half of the 2018 financial year. A Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) is a single company or a group that owns and manages property on behalf of shareholders.

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