NewRiver Retail, the UK REIT which owns 360 pubs, is planning to raise £150m through a share placing to fund growth.
The placing is being conducted by way of an accelerated bookbuild on the company’s behalf by Liberum Capital Limited and Peel Hunt.
The company said it “continues to see a wide range of opportunities which meet its investment criteria and therefore has a strong pipeline of acquisition and development opportunities which it is anticipated that the placing proceeds, together with additional sources of finance where relevant, will be utilised to fund”.
It said it had agreed heads of terms on two potential acquisitions which have a combined acquisition price of c£100m. The first is a portfolio of three regional shopping centres and the other is a shopping centre in a “strong London suburb”.
Since the company’s interim results were announced on last, NewRiver has completed three disposals, generating total cash considerations of £31.9m and total profit of £5.6m.
The three disposals were the Railway Hotel pub in Wigan; Regent Court, Leamington Spa and Ferensway, Hull.
David Lockhart, Chief Executive of NewRiver commented: “NewRiver has enjoyed significant progress in recent years, delivering strong shareholder returns by deploying its highly regarded active asset management and risk-controlled development skills. The ability to grow the asset base through highly selective acquisitions is fundamental to the future growth of the Company and we have identified a significant pipeline of new opportunities that we believe will deliver long term above-market returns to shareholders.”
