LONDON, UK: Supermarket Income REIT (LSE: SUPR), the real estate investment trust providing secure, inflation-protected, long income from grocery property in the UK announced the acquisition of four supermarkets for a total purchase price of £76.4 million. Acquired from different vendors, the purchases consist of two Tesco supermarkets, located in Cheltenham and Merseyside, as well as a central Glasgow site anchored by a Sainsbury’s supermarket and an M&S Foodhall.

The Tesco in Bishops Cleeve, Cheltenham, comprises a 29,501 sq ft net sales area supermarket located on a 4.0-acre town centre site with 245 car parking spaces. The store is being acquired with an unexpired lease term of 12 years and is subject to annual RPI-linked rental uplifts (subject to a 5.0% cap and a 0.0% floor).

The Tesco in Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, comprises a 22,298 sq ft net sales area supermarket located on a 2.9-acre town centre site with 172 car parking spaces. The store is being acquired with an unexpired lease term of 12 years and is subject to annual RPI-linked rental uplifts (subject to a 5.0% cap and a 0.0% floor).

The city centre Glasgow site comprises a 16,893 sq ft net sales area Sainsbury’s supermarket with an unexpired lease term of 10 years and an M&S Foodhall with an unexpired lease term of four years, both subject to 5-yearly, upwards only, open market rent reviews.

Adjoining the Sainsbury’s and M&S Foodhall are further units providing local health and convenience services that are occupied by tenants including Boots, Superdrug and Costa Coffee.

The four supermarket acquisitions have been funded in part through the first drawdown on the Company’s recently announced £412.1 million unsecured credit facility, which has a margin of 1.5% above SONIA, currently equivalent to an all-in finance cost of 3.4%.

Ben Green, Director of Atrato Capital Limited, the Investment Adviser to Supermarket Income REIT plc, said: “These acquisitions provide further diversification to the Company’s growing portfolio. The strong trading M&S Foodhall adds a third M&S to SUPR’s portfolio and we are pleased to be taking on the adjoining non-grocery tenants in Glasgow. These adjoining units add to our existing non-grocery assets, which continue to represent less than 10% of our overall portfolio by value.”