Stor-Age, South Africa’s largest self storage property fund, has acquired a four-property portfolio in England, its third acquisition there in 12 months, for £59.0 million (R1.2 billion) as part of a joint venture with the Moorfield Group.
The portfolio, comprising modern, purpose-built properties in the South of England and the West Midlands, will add significant financial and operational scale to Stor-Age’s UK operations, Storage King, a statement said yesterday.
Stor-Age CEO Gavin Lucas said they made a strategic entry into the UK self storage market a little more than four years ago, in November 2017.
“Since then, we’ve seen Storage King deliver not only superb operating results year after year, but we have also seen it grow significantly, from 13 properties to 30, with a further four properties secured in the development pipeline,” he said.
The three acquisitions in the UK for Stor-Age in the current financial year represents nine properties in total at a combined purchase price of over £100m.
In January, Stor-Age aquired a four-property portfolio in Leeds from McCarthy’s Storage World for £37.5m. Prior to this, in April 2021, the largest self storage property in Blackpool was acquired for £3.6m.
The four Storagebase properties, located in Banbury, Wednesbury, Frome and Amesbury, have more than 28 000 square metres of gross letting area.
The Frome and Amesbury properties would provide Storage King with a greater presence in the south west of England, whilst the Banbury and Wednesbury properties would enhance the Storage King presence in the south east of England and the West Midlands, respectively.
The acquisition was part of the joint venture with Moorfield - Stor-Age has a 24.9 percent equity interest in the joint venture and also earns management fees for acquiring, developing and managing properties therein.
Moorfield is a UK real estate fund manager with a more than 25-year track record of successfully investing in multiple real estate subsectors.
The acquisition also marked the second ‘green’ sustainability-linked loan facility that Stor-Age had entered into over six months with Aviva Investors, the global asset management business.
The new 5-year £30.8m, interest only, loan facility reinforced Stor-Age’s commitment to achieving its sustainability targets, as part of it’s broader ESG strategy and framework.
Lucas said the Storagebase acquisition was secured after a competitive bidding process, and then packaged by introducing optimally matched in-country equity capital from Moorfield and sustainability-linked debt funding from Aviva.”
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