Charter Hall Long WALE REIT (ASX: CLW) went into a trading halt today to announce more property acquisitions.
It was only a month ago that it announced $331.5 million of property acquisitions including a 15% interest in the Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS) headquarters building.
Today, the real estate investment trust (REIT) announced that it would acquire a 50% interest in a new managed partnership that would acquire a 49% interest in a portfolio of 225 long weighted average lease expiry (WALE) convenience retail properties leased to BP valued at $420 million representing a passing yield of 5.5% – this represents the majority of BP's owned convenience retail properties in Australia. The lease structure has annual uncapped CPI rental increases.
It's also going to acquire a 50% interest in Arnott's manufacturing site in Huntingwood, Sydney for $199 million, which represents a passing yield of 4.5% with a lease term of 32 years. The lease has annual rental increases of uncapped CPI plus 0.5%.
This will be funded partially by a fully underwritten $350 million capital raising.
It also announced it has independently valued 92 of the REIT's 158 properties, resulting in a $83.5 million net valuation uplift, or 2.9% in percentage terms, over prior valuations.
The REIT has upgraded its FY20 operating earnings per share (EPS) guidance to 28.3 cents per share, representing 5.2% growth over FY19.