REG - Safestore Hldgs plc - Safestore acquires remaining share of Benelux JV

Safestore HoldingsAnnouncement

31/03/2022 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20220331:nRSe6761Ga&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 6761G  Safestore Holdings plc  31 March 2022

31 March 2022

 

Safestore Holdings plc ("Safestore" or "the Group")

 

Safestore acquires remaining 80% share of Benelux Joint Venture

 

Safestore is pleased to announce that it has acquired the remaining 80% of the
equity owned by Carlyle Europe Realty (CER) in the Joint Venture formed in
2019 ("the Joint Venture"). The total consideration paid to Carlyle was
€67m. The total initial cash outflow is €139m and includes the share
purchase (€67m), refinancing of the existing borrowings (€67m), transfer
tax and other deal costs (€5m) and was funded from the Group's existing loan
facilities. The Joint Venture was acquired based on an enterprise value of
€146m.

 

The Joint Venture was setup in 2019 to acquire and develop assets in The
Netherlands and Belgium in order to leverage Safestore's operating platform
outside our core markets. Since then, the Joint Venture has grown to a
portfolio of 55,000 square meters (592,000 Sq Ft) of MLA which is currently
74% occupied.

 

The portfolio is made up of fifteen high quality properties (twelve freehold
properties, two ground leases and one leasehold property). Nine properties are
located in the Netherlands, six of which are concentrated in the Haarlem /
Amsterdam area with additional properties in The Hague, Het Gooi and the
recently opened Nijmegen store. In Belgium, two stores are located in the
Brussels area, two in the city of Liege and further properties in Nivelles and
Charleroi. Safestore has managed the properties since acquisition by the Joint
Venture

 

The Group's investment is expected to be marginally accretive to Group
earnings per share in FY2021/22 and will support the Group's future dividend
capacity. The expected initial yield based on total enterprise value is 3.9%¹
which we expect to grow to Safestore's normal returns hurdles as the portfolio
matures. Post transaction, the Group's LTV will increase to 31%. Financing
capacity under our RCF and Shelf facilities, combined with our cash reserves,
is expected to be c. £219m following this transaction.

 

Safestore CEO Frederic Vecchioli commented:

 

"Combining Safestore's highly scalable operating platform and development
experience with Carlyle's investment expertise proved to be a successful
partnership. We are now exploring further opportunities to work together."

 

Marc-Antoine Bouyer, Managing Director on the Carlyle Europe Realty advisory
team, commented:

 

"This transaction marks the culmination of a major acquisition and asset
management effort through our joint venture with Safestore to assemble an
institutional-quality self-storage portfolio of scale with exposure to prime
cities in the Netherlands and Belgium. We believe that the market fundamentals
for European self-storage remain highly attractive and look forward to working
alongside Safestore in identifying further opportunities on the continent."

 

This announcement contains inside information as defined in Article 7 of the
Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 as incorporated into UK law pursuant
to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.  Following publication of this
announcement, this information is now considered to be in the public domain.

 

Ends

 

Notes

 

1. For these purposes, Initial Yield is defined as EBITDA after leasehold rent
divided by the total investment on a stand-alone basis including deal costs
and real estate transfer tax.

 

Enquiries

 

 Safestore Holdings plc                        020 8732 1500
 Frederic Vecchioli, Chief Executive Officer

 Andy Jones, Chief Financial Officer

 www.safestore.com (http://www.safestore.com)

 Instinctif Partners
 Guy Scarborough / Bryn Woodward               020 7457 2020

 

 

Notes to Editors

 

·      Safestore is the UK's largest self-storage group with 162 stores
at 31 January 2022, comprising 129 wholly owned stores in the UK (including 72
in London and the South East with the remainder in key metropolitan areas such
as Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds,
Newcastle and Bristol), 29 wholly owned stores in the Paris region and 4
stores in Barcelona

·      Safestore operates more self-storage sites inside the M25 and in
central Paris than any competitor providing more proximity to customers in the
wealthiest and densest UK and French markets.

·      Safestore was founded in the UK in 1998. It acquired the French
business "Une Pièce en Plus" ("UPP") in 2004 which was founded in 1998 by the
current Safestore Group CEO Frederic Vecchioli.

·      Safestore has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since
2007. It entered the FTSE 250 index in October 2015.

·      The Group provides storage to around 80,000 personal and business
customers.

·      As at 31 January 2022, Safestore had a maximum lettable area
("MLA") of 7.067 million sq ft (excluding the expansion pipeline stores) of
which 5.708 million sq ft was occupied.

·      Safestore employs around 700 people in the UK, Paris and
Barcelona.

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  ACQDZGFFRGLGZZM