CoStar News Alert - Kimmre acquire Carehome portfolio for Aberdeen Standard Investments

Aberdeen Standard Investments has bought a portfolio of care homes let to Care UK and underpinned by council block contracts located across the East of England for £44.25m from the Schroder UK Real Estate Fund (SREF), CoStar News can reveal.

The portfolio was developed by SREF in conjunction with Suffolk County Council as part of the council’s home replacement program which took place between 2014 and 2015. The portfolio comprises 340 registered care beds located across five sites - Framlingham, Haverhill, Mildenhall, Lowestoft, and Ipswich.

The portfolio is let for a further 23.5 years and benefits from annual RPI reviews and is being acquired by the Long Lease Property Fund.

Rob Cosslett, Interim Fund Manager of Schroder UK Real Estate Fund (SREF), said in a statement: “SREF’s strategy is to divest out of assets to crystallise returns following the successful completion of the business plan and reinvest the proceeds into performance enhancing assets and initiatives. We received strong demand for our care home portfolio and were delighted to sell the assets for a combined £44.25 million. We have several development projects currently underway, or due to begin imminently, such as our office assets in Croydon and Cambridge, as well as across our industrial schemes in Hartlebury, Wolverhampton Steelpark and Crayford. The capital secured from this transaction will maintain the progress of these investments so that we can seek to continually deliver strong returns for our investors.”

Christopher McCorkell, Deputy Fund Manager of the Long lease Property Fund, added: “This transaction reflects our commitment to both focusing on strong asset fundamentals and continuing to diversify the Fund. This is the latest in a number of transactions undertaken by the Fund this year and is our first purchase in the care home sector. This deal offers us excellent liability matching credentials and the care homes benefit from impressive CQC ratings, Council block contracts and are let off sustainable rents.”

Kimmre advised Aberdeen Standard Investments and SREF was advised by JLL.