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(Alliance News) - Warehouse REIT PLC said Monday the occupancy in its portfolio has increased in the second half of its financial year so far through the management of its assets, prompting an increased dividend for the third quarter.
The warehouse investor said that during the period from October 1, it completed 24 new lettings and 20 lease renewals across 189,000 square feet of space, achieved at 6.4% ahead of estimated rental value at the end of September.
This led to an increase in portfolio occupancy to 92.6% from 91.5% at the end of September, and in total contracted rent now stands at GBP31.5 million from GBP30.3 million.
Warehouse REIT declared a third-quarter dividend of 1.6 pence per share, up 6.7% from 1.5p paid in each of the first and second quarters.
"Alongside Warehouse REIT's disciplined deployment of shareholders' funds from our most recent fundraise, we continue to extract strong operational performance from the company's diversified portfolio of UK warehouse assets," said Andrew Bird, managing director of investment advisor Tilstone Partners Ltd.
"The company has achieved both rents and strategic disposals in excess of valuations, while competition for space from an ongoing broad range of tenants has translated into increased occupancy levels. Furthermore, the current rent roll does not reflect a number of income and value enhancing projects which we are confident will be delivered in the near term," Bird added.
Shares in Warehouse REIT - which is based in London - were up 2.2% at 117.50 pence on Monday.
By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com
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