LONDON-listed property investor Supermarket Income REIT has made its first foray into Northern Ireland by acquiring the Sainsbury's complex in Bangor in a £24.8 million deal.
The seller was John Morgan Estates, a Belfast-based property letting agency whose principal directors are Raymond George Morgan (76), his son William George Morgan (52) and Rosemary-Anne Elizabeth Berryman (49).
The ten-acre site on the West Circular Corridor was developed in 2011 and comprises a 44,000 sq ft store, 650 parking spaces and an eight-pump petrol station.
It also includes an adjoining Homebase unit spanning 33,000 sq ft.
The Sainsbury's store has an unexpired lease term of 15 years with five-yearly rent reviews subject to 2 per cent fixed annually compounded uplifts.
The Homebase unit has an unexpired lease term of 10 years.
Based on the cost of the deal, the combined net initial yield is 6.6 per cent.
Ben Green, of Atrato Capital, the investment adviser to Supermarket Income REIT, said: "This income accretive acquisition is our first in Northern Ireland, adding further geographical diversification to our growing portfolio of UK supermarkets."
The company is a real estate investment trust providing secure, inflation-protected, long income from grocery property in the UK.
Supermarket Income REIT claims to provide its shareholders with an attractive level of income together with the potential for capital growth by investing in supermarket real estate assets.
Its properties are fully let on long indexed linked leases to the biggest names in the UK grocery sector with excellent covenant strength.
Its portfolio includes seven Sainsbury's stores, eight Tesco's, eight Waitrose, three Morrisons and one Aldi.
Indeed its directly-owned portfolio has a valuation of £1.1 billion and garners more than £52 million a year in rents.
The deal is the biggest in Northern Ireland so far this year, and close to the highest transaction of 2020, when Pimco’s Bravo Strategies III fund paid £34.7 million for a 90 per cent in Sprucefield Retail Park on the outskirts of Lisburn.
