Industrial portfolio up for sale

A portfolio of industrial properties in the south east of the UK has been put up for sale. The seller, Columbus Capital Management, has placed an asking price of £220.5 million on the investment vehicle, which is currently registered in Jersey.

Columbus is a division of Schroders, the fund manager, who set it up in 2011 after buying a portfolio of nine assets from Alycidon Investments. Schroders plc is a global asset management company with £271.5 billion under management as of June this year.

Columbus has increased the portfolio, known as the Partridge portfolio, to 38 since the division was set up, targeting light industrial sites in London and around the south east. 

With rents in this area predicted to rise above the national average over the next three years, the portfolio will prove attractive to potential purchasers. 

The properties include 314 units over 38 industrial estates, varying in space from 500 square feet to 75,000 square feet, in areas including Hemel Hempstead, Battersea and Heathrow, let to tenants that include Royal Mail, Caffè Nero and Kenwood Appliances. The portfolio has a rental value of £18.8 million a year and a passing rent of £15.7m, with its vacancy rate 5.88.

Part of the portfolio was acquired by the purchase of the SEAL portfolio from USS in early 2013. At the same time but in a different transaction, it acquired Phase I of the Parkfield Industrial Estate in Battersea.

It also has property, with 228 tenants, throughout the UK, in the Midlands, North West, Scotland, South West and Yorkshire.

The agents JLL have been appointed to market the portfolio. 

This news was brought to you by Morgan Pryce, a specialist tenant acquisition agent with offices in Oxford Circus and the City. Morgan Pryce specialises in search, negotiation and project management and works exclusively for tenants.