Supermarket Income REIT: Proposed Issue of New Ordinary Shares
Proposed Issue of New Ordinary Shares
The Board of Supermarket Income REIT plc, the real estate investment trust providing secure, inflation-protected, long income from grocery property in the UK announces its intention to raise approximately £100 million by way of an issue pursuant to the Placing Programme, at 106 pence per New Ordinary Share (the “Issue”).
Highlights
- The issue price of 106 pence per New Ordinary Share (the “Issue Price”) represents a discount of 3.2 percent to the closing price of 109.5 pence per existing Ordinary Share on 3 March 2021 (being the last business day prior to this Announcement) and a 1.9 percent premium to the Company’s last reported EPRA NTA per Ordinary Share as at 31 December 2020 of 104 pence
- The Investment Adviser has identified a number of attractive acquisition opportunities across the marketplace, including:
- four assets with an aggregate value of approximately £230 million (the “Target Assets”). The Investment Adviser has undertaken its own due diligence and negotiations in connection with certain Target Assets
- a further pipeline of nine assets with an aggregate value of approximately £184 million that meet the Company’s acquisition criteria (the “Pipeline”)
- The Target Assets and the Pipeline present multiple investment opportunities, which are expected to give visibility on current pricing and optionality if acceptable terms cannot be reached with its preferred vendors
- The Investment Adviser will continue to explore further investment opportunities, owing to its market knowledge of the supermarket real estate sector and strong reputation. It is well positioned to source asset opportunities which could, for example, come to market from vendors who are seeking additional liquidity to fund redemption requests or to recycle capital
- The £100 million target issue size, together with associated debt financing, should enable the Company to purchase some of the Target Assets. If the target issue size is exceeded, the Company will consider the possibility of acquiring additional assets in the Pipeline. When making this decision the Company will consider, inter alia, the level and quality of assets, the near-term availability of the assets at the right price, and the projected financial position of the Company following the Issue
The Investment Adviser has proven its ability to identify and acquire attractive investments for the Group despite the on-going COVID-19 crisis. Since 30 June 2020, the Investment Adviser has deployed £518.0 million of capital on behalf of the Group in 19 separate transactions, increasing the geographic coverage of the portfolio and diversifying the tenant base.
The Issue is being conducted in accordance with the terms and conditions set out in the appendix (the “Appendix”) to this announcement (together, the “Announcement”). The prospectus published by the Company on 17 September 2020 (the “Prospectus”), is due to be supplemented by a supplementary prospectus, which is expected to be published by the Company shortly following approval by the Financial Conduct Authority (the “Supplementary Prospectus”).
Nick Hewson, Chairman of the Company, said:
“Omnichannel supermarket property has proven to be highly robust as demonstrated by our 100 percent rent collection in 2020 and growing investor interest in the grocery property sector. Since its IPO in 2017, the Company has carefully grown its investment portfolio to over £1 billion through accretive and selective acquisitions, whilst delivering investors a stable and growing income return.
“With an attractive pipeline of assets in place, this fundraise will enable the Company to continue to execute on a number of transactions that meet our stringent criteria, building on its strong track record by investing in additional key omnichannel properties let to some of the UK’s largest supermarket operators.”
