IM Properties has sold a number of its German logistics properties to the multi-let investment management company Valad Europe for more than £21m.
The sale follows the company’s recent unloading of a near-100,000sq metre Munich logistics facility to car maker BMW for £36m. All four properties in the latest deal are let to the logistics group Trans-o-Flex Schnell-Lieferdienst, a subsidiary of Austrian Post AG, and have leases longer than seven years.
Warwickshire-based IM Properties acquired the portfolio several years ago as part of its European acquisition strategy and successfully re-geared the majority of the leases. “This transaction was the culmination of a longer term strategy to maximise the value of the original assets by working closely with the tenant and aligning ourselves with their occupational requirements,” explained Simon Reed, director of European investments at IM Properties.
Last September the company announced it had secured a new £146m debt refinancing deal from RBS, Handelsbanken and Lloyds Banking Group in three separate transactions. A funding package of £36.7m was granted by RBS, replacing existing facilities with the bank, which expired in the spring of 2013. An additional £26.4m was secured from Handelsbanken against IM Properties’ £44 million purchase of the Mell Square shopping centre (pictured) in Solihull.
The senior debt funding encompasses the developer’s portfolios of offices and industrial properties stretching from the South East to the Midlands, including its Birch Coppice Business Park, near Tamworth, and one of North Warwickshire’s biggest employment success stories of recent years.
Adrian Clarke is finance director at IM Properties. At the time of three-way restructuring, he said: “These refinancing deals reflect the strong relationship IM Properties has with its banking partners. We have completed transactions raising nearly £150m of debt so far this year in what remains a challenging lending market.
“Combining our cash reserves with robust banking facilities such as these provides a solid platform from which to continue growing our business. This provides us with certainty for the next few years, ensuring that we are able to achieve our aspirations for a number of key projects currently in the development pipeline,” he said.
The IM Group was founded in 1976 by its chairman and sole owner Lord Edmiston. Its development division, IM Properties, was added 11 years later and has grown to become one of the UK’s biggest privately owned property companies with a £1bn investment and development portfolio across Britain, Europe and the USA. Among its industrial, retail and office sector occupiers are Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Next, House of Fraser, UPS, Volkswagen, BT, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and BMW.
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