Specialist real estate investment trust Custodian Property Income (CREI) announced the strategic acquisition of a £36 million family-owned portfolio. The assets are expected to enhance earnings from day one, improve dividend cover and provide ‘potential for value creation’.
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‘Trust of choice’
Custodian aims to be ‘the investment trust of choice for investors seeking high and stable dividends from well-diversified UK real estate’. Today’s announcement signals the second acquisition of a family-owned portfolio of assets after the Merlin deal in May 2025.
The portfolio comprises seven assets close to the M25 motorway in the Beaconsfield and Gerrards Cross area. Roughly half the assets are residential, leisure or motor trade related, and half are offices and high-street retail.
Top tenants include Vertu Motors (VTU), Marks & Spencer (MKS) and Anytime Fitness, while the annual rent is around £2.7 million. That represents a 6% uplift to Custodian’s annual rent roll, which the manager can drive further through lease events.
‘We have strong ambitions to continue scaling the business through selective portfolio acquisitions’, said Custodian managing director Richard Shepherd-Cross. ‘Last year’s Merlin transaction provided a strong blueprint of how we can utilise the combination of our listed status and smaller-lot size investment strategy to provide a solution to family offices seeking to exit or simplify the ownership structure of their property holdings.’
Today’s deal builds on last year’s Merlin transaction and helps position Custodian as the buyer of choice for family offices. The firm has hinted at a ‘healthy pipeline of similar opportunities’ as more family offices face succession and tax issues.
We have always been impressed by Custodian’s active approach to managing its diversified, smaller-lot portfolio to create value. Last week’s trading update showed another increase in the portfolio ERV (estimated rental value) with 14% additional income growth embedded.
Reads the press release here: https://custodianreit.com/
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