London - 04 June, 2024: Londonmetric, a leading real estate investment trust (REIT), has reported a significant swing from a loss to a profit of £119m in 2024. This comes as the trust reported a 21% increase in rental income following a series of mergers.

In its annual results for the year ending 31 March, Londonmetric reported that rental income had risen from £144m to £175m over the year. This news follows the trust's takeover of LXi REIT earlier this year, which effectively doubled the trust’s overall net asset base. However, due to the issuance of new shares to fund the deal, net assets per share saw a slight decline, from 204p to 195p at the end of March 2024.

Londonmetric reported a total property return of 4.7% throughout the year, outperforming the Investment Property Databank index, which fell during the same period. The trust increased its dividend by 7.4% to 10.2p per share for the year and indicated expectations of a further increase in 2025 as the merger begins to pay dividends.

The group announced it would target a 2.85p per share dividend for the first quarter of its 2025 financial year, an increase of 18.8%. It also stated it would target a 12p per share dividend for the full year.

Andrew Jones, Chief Executive of Londonmetric, said while speaking to the press, "This has been a transformational period for our company with the successful execution of two transactions. We have doubled the size of our portfolio to £6bn, creating the UK’s leading triple net lease REIT and the third largest UK REIT by market capitalisation. Scale and income granularity are increasingly important and our activity has further enhanced our sector-leading income metrics with reliable, predictable and exceptional income growth."

In addition, the trust announced it had sold off two Scottish offices originally belonging to LXi to a single buyer at a net initial yield of seven per cent. The trust disposed of an 85,000 square foot office in Dundee and a 60,000 square foot office in Glasgow, selling the properties to a single buyer for £36.6m. Separately, the trust also sold off a former LXi care home in the West Midlands for £500,000.

Londonmetric said it has now sold £55.4m of what it calls as, ‘non-core’ LXi assets, at an average of seven per cent above prevailing book value. Jones added that while the assets were “good” and “well-let”, the trust was continuing to look to exit non-core sectors and geographies, instead reinvesting where the trust had “a competitive edge and which are enjoying a structural tailwind."