Boots agrees £298m sale-and-leaseback deal
Retailer Boots said today it had struck a “groundbreaking” £298m (€431m) deal for the sale and leaseback of 312 high street stores.
The shops, which have been sold to private property company REIT Asset Management, are mainly freehold sites in small towns in Britain.
Boots said the sale process attracted 20 expressions of interest and that the proceeds were “significantly higher” than it initially expected.
The retailer, which has a total estate of around 1,400 sites, will lease the properties at an initial rental of £16.1m (€23.3m) a year, with fixed rental uplifts of 1.5% a year.
Boots said the terms of the deal were particularly attractive because they gave it the flexibility to vacate any property at reasonable rates.
It is the first time that Boots has carried out a sale-and-leaseback, although it has carried out other property transactions in the past.
