DIVIDEND DECLARATION AND Q3 TRADING UPDATE

LXi REIT

09/02/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 3743P  LXI REIT PLC  09 February 2023

 

9 February 2023

LXi REIT plc

(the "Company" or "LXi")

DIVIDEND DECLARATION AND Q3 TRADING UPDATE

The Board of LXi REIT plc (ticker: LXI), the specialist inflation-protected
very long income REIT, is pleased to declare an interim quarterly dividend and
provide a trading update for the quarter ended 31 December 2022.

 

Cyrus Ardalan, Chairman, commented:

 

"Despite the challenging wider macroeconomic backdrop, LXI REIT continues to
deliver excellent operational results that help to underpin our growing
income.

 

Our "3R" priorities for 2023 include executing on our refinancing, recycling
capital, and re-gearing some of our leases to extend our WAULT.  We have made
strong progress in these areas, with a material and comprehensive refinancing
at an advanced stage and the completion of the Travelodge regear in this
quarter. We look forward to providing further announcements on these in due
course.

 

Meanwhile, our resilient and defensive portfolio of mission critical assets
continues to benefit from embedded rental uplifts, and the attraction of long
income real estate continues to be demonstrated in the investment markets."

 

Dividend Declaration

 

·   The Company today declares a dividend of 1.575 pence per Ordinary
Share. This is in line with the Company's annual dividend target of 6.3 pence
per ordinary share for the year to 31 March 2023.

 

·     The dividend will be paid as a Property Income Distribution ("PID")
in respect of the Company's tax-exempt property rental business.

 

·     The timetable is set out below:

 

Ex-Dividend date:                     16 February 2023

Record date:                             17 February
2023

Dividend payment date:            10 March 2023

 

Rent collection, occupancy and rent reviews

 

·    The Company's operational performance remains robust, with 100% of
rent collected in advance for the quarter ending 31 March 2023 (which
continues the post-Covid 100% collection record).

 

·     100% of the Company's portfolio is let, with 98% of the rent
benefitting from inflation-linked or fixed rental uplifts and 2% containing
upward-only open market reviews.

 

·    The Company owns a wide range of sector-diversified assets let to
over 80 strong tenants on long term leases, with a sector-leading 27-year
WAULT to the earlier of first break and expiry.

 

·     Since 1 October 2022, the Company has carried out 54 rent reviews,
representing 6% of the rent roll, at an average uplift of 3.5% per annum and
adding £1.43 million to the total rent, taking the total rent roll to a
record £202 million per annum.

 

·   Between now and 30 September this year, a further 52% of the rent is
scheduled to go through a contractual rent review, across 94 leases, which
should provide a more significant increase in the total rent roll.

 

·    The Company has now completed on the rent-smoothing and regear with
Travelodge, the exchange of which was announced in December. Travelodge have
also announced a record adjusted EBITDA for 2022 in excess of £200 million,
significantly outperforming prior years, including pre-Covid.

 

Forward fundings, Sales and Acquisitions

 

·    The Company continues to review potential acquisitions and disposals
from the portfolio and is in early-stage negotiations on a number of small
disposals and a pre-let forward purchase, which it expects to announce over
the upcoming months.

 

·    As at today's date, the Company has less than £60 million of
development funding yet to complete on existing forward funding projects,
which will be fully funded by the Company's existing Revolving Credit
Facility. The Company only enters into forward fundings on a fully
fixed-price, pre-let and planning approved basis.

 

Management resource

 

·     The Company's investment advisor, LXI REIT Advisors, is pleased to
report the recent senior appointments of Alex Short and Alex MacEachin, as
part of its continuing investment in resource and following the successful
merger and integration with Secure Income REIT.

 

·    Alex Short, appointed as Chief Investment Officer, has over 20
years' industry experience, having held senior roles at leading real estate
businesses, including AEW and UBS.

 

·      Alex MacEachin, appointed Finance Director, has extensive
experience of property and construction finance and accounting matters,
including most recently as Group Financial Controller of Empiric Student
Property PLC.

 

Portfolio valuation

 

·   The Company's next portfolio valuation date is 31 March 2023, being its
full year end.  The Company intends to publish the new portfolio valuation,
to be carried out by Knight Frank LLP, in early April. The full year audited
report and accounts will be published, as usual, in the second half of May.

 

 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

 LXI REIT Advisors Limited                      Via H/Advisors Maitland

 Simon Lee (Partner, Fund Manager)

 John White (Partner, Fund Manager)

 Freddie Brooks (CFO)

 Barclays                                       020 7623 2323

 Bronson Albery / Tom Macdonald / Dion Miceli

 Jefferies International                        020 7029 8000

 Tom Yeadon / Ed Matthews / Rishi Bhuchar

 H/Advisors Maitland (Communications Advisor)   07747 113 930 / 020 7379 5151

 James Benjamin / Alistair de Kare-Silver       lxireit-maitland@h-advisors.global

 

The Company's LEI is: 2138008YZGXOKAXQVI45

 

NOTES

LXI REIT plc invests in commercial property assets predominantly in the UK,
let, or pre-let, on long (typically 20 to 30 years to expiry or first break),
inflation-linked leases to a wide range of strong tenant covenants across a
diverse range of robust property sectors.

 

The Company may invest in fixed-price forward funded developments, provided
they are pre-let to an acceptable tenant and full planning permission is in
place. The Company will not undertake any direct development activity nor
assume direct development risk.

 

The Company is targeting a dividend of 6.3 pence per ordinary share for the
year which commenced on 1 April 2022*.

 

The Company, a real estate investment trust ("REIT") incorporated in England
and Wales, is listed on the premium listing segment of the Official List of
the UK Financial Conduct Authority and was admitted to trading on the main
market for listed securities of the London Stock Exchange in February 2017.

 

The Company is a constituent of the FTSE 250, EPRA/NAREIT, MSCI and STOXX
Europe 600 indices.

 

Further information on the Company is available at www.lxireit.com
(http://www.lxireit.com)

*     This is a target and not profit forecast.

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