Grainger to sell German assets, reports strong trading

13th Aug 2015 07:38

(ShareCast News) - Residential property group Grainger announced plans to sell its assets in Germany as part of a strategy to simplify the business and increase its focus on the UK market, as it said trading in the first ten months of this year was strong.The company has appointed investment bank Lazard & Co in Frankfurt to advise on the disposal of its wholly-owned residential property assets in Germany, which it said were "non-core to its UK-focused strategy".In terms of trading, Grainger said sales of vacant properties achieved prices on average 8.3% above September 2014 possession value, at margins of 51.2%. Meanwhile, the sales pipeline for vacant reversionary assets stood at £213.8m at the end of July from £228.1m last year.The company said levels of demand for Grainger-managed UK market rented properties remained strong. Year to date, rental increases have averaged 6.0% on a like-for-like basis on new lets and 2.3% on renewals, compared with 4.2% and 3.2% in July 2014.Chief executive Andrew Cunningham said: ""In addition to the excellent trading performance over the period, we continue to simplify the group's operations and accelerate the growth of our PRS business. "Our focus on accelerating the growth of our UK PRS business is going well, with recent acquisitions bringing our total managed PRS portfolio in the UK to over 3,400 units, and with a pipeline of over 2,000 units. And last week we were pleased to achieve a significant refinancing package for our syndicated bank debt, reducing our cost of debt and extending maturities."Grainger also announced a management shake-up.It said that as previously announced, Helen Gordon will join the company as CEO designate by 1 December, which is earlier than previously stated. Meanwhile, as part of a managed succession, Mark Greenwood will retire as finance director at the end of December 2015. The search for his successor is underway and will be announced in due course. Rob Wilkinson, who is currently chief executive of AEW Europe, will also join the board as an independent non-executive director.