Kennedy Wilson Europe Real Estate Plc, a property company listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: KWE) that is sponsored and managed by Kennedy Wilson, has acquired a mixed use property portfolio of 180 properties located in the UK from Aviva Commercial Real Estate Finance, a subsidiary of Aviva Plc, the UK’s largest insurer. The transaction totalled at approximately £503 million ($758 million).
KWE has completed the purchase of 163 of the 180 properties, worth roughly £444 million ($669 million). The 17 remaining properties in the portfolio are expected to close subject to certain conditions.
Mary Ricks, president and CEO of Kennedy Wilson Europe, commented: “The completion of this acquisition along with attractive and flexible vendor financing materially increases KWE’s stabilized cash flow. KWE continues to make good progress in deploying the capital raised in October 2014 from the follow-on offering.”
The acquisition is being funded from KWE’s cash resources and a new £352 million ($530 million) secured loan facility with Aviva. The portfolio, which is located primarily in England and contains 3.5 million square feet of space, is currently 98% occupied and is anticipated to produce nearly £36 million ($54 million) of net rental income. It will be mostly used for retail, food and convenience purposes, with these sectors comprising 62% of the portfolio. Leisure, industrial, office and hotels will make up the rest.
Since its inception in February 2014, real estate related acquisitions by KWE have amounted to more than £1.9 billion ($2.9 billion). They currently generate around £130 million ($196 million) of net rental income and consist of more than 10 million square feet.
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