Tritax Big Box adds nearly £11m of annual income year-to-date

(Sharecast News) - Tritax Big Box REIT said in an update on Thursday that it had added £10.8m of annual income so far this year through asset management and development activity, as it continued to capture rental growth across its logistics portfolio and progress data centre opportunities. The FTSE 100 logistics property investor said £5.9m of incremental annual rental income had been added year-to-date from lease events across 12% of the portfolio.

Lease events delivered a 13.3% absolute increase in rent, while open-market reviews produced an average uplift of 39.7%.

Chief executive Colin Godfrey said Tritax had entered the year with "strong operational momentum" and was making progress across its three growth drivers.

"We are capturing rental reversion and driving income growth across our high-quality portfolio through our active and hands-on approach, particularly within the assets acquired from Blackstone," he said.

"Our logistics development platform is well positioned and capturing positive occupier sentiment, while we are advancing data centre opportunities across our c.1GW pipeline."

The company said lease events for UKCM logistics assets and urban assets acquired from Blackstone delivered rental increases of 14.5% and 24.3% respectively.

Vacancy declined to 5.0% from 5.6% at the end of December, helped by a development letting at Newark.

Tritax said a further 21% of contracted rent was due to be reviewed across the rest of 2026, which it expected to support higher like-for-like rental growth.

The group also reported progress in development lettings, including a 0.4m square foot new letting at Newark, securing £3.3m of annual rental income, alongside a 10-year lease extension for an existing 0.8m square foot building.

A 0.1m square foot pre-let in Cambridge secured £1.6m of annual rental income.

Both new lettings were expected to deliver a yield on cost of more than 7%.

Tritax said about £7m of annual rental income was currently in solicitors' hands, while its 2026 development starts remained supported by guidance for a 6% to 8% yield on cost.

The company said occupier demand for UK logistics remained healthy, with national take-up of 5.3m square feet in the first quarter, compared with 6.0m square feet a year earlier.

National vacancy reduced by 32 basis points to 6.8%, while speculative space under construction fell to 6.2m square feet from 6.8m square feet at the end of 2025.

MSCI distribution warehouse rents rose 0.7% in the first quarter, while prime yields remained stable at 5.25%.

Tritax said the transaction market remained open, although volumes were relatively subdued.

Godfrey said the company had not seen any impact from the conflict in the Middle East so far, but was continuing to monitor the situation closely.

In data centres, Tritax said its first site at Manor Farm, Heathrow, with 107MW of capacity, was "primed for launch" and could recognise strong development profits in 2026, subject to planning approval and securing a pre-let.

A powered-shell pre-let agreement was progressing with an occupier, and a planning decision from the Secretary of State was expected on or before 9 June.

A planning decision was also expected in the near term for a second data centre site in Chelmsford.

Tritax said it had a first right of refusal over a pipeline of UK opportunities that could provide about 1GW of further data centre capacity.

The company said it was progressing a reduction in loan-to-value from the 33.2% reported in December, supported by capital rotation.

More than £270m of disposals had been completed or exchanged by 30 April, most of which related to a logistics portfolio sold above valuation. It said 93% of non-strategic UKCM assets had now been sold, exchanged or were under offer, with transactions executed above implied acquisition cost.

Tritax also said it had finalised post-completion consideration adjustments relating to its £1.04bn portfolio acquisition from Blackstone.

As a result, 12,375,336 new ordinary shares will be admitted to trading, expected from 8 May.

Following admission, Tritax said it would have 2,714,497,501 ordinary shares in issue, with no shares held in treasury.

Godfrey said the company's portfolio quality, capital discipline and strategy continued to support resilient income growth.

"Looking ahead, with a greater proportion of the portfolio subject to rent reviews in 2026 and 2027 and substantial development opportunities within logistics and data centres, we are well placed to accelerate income growth," he said.

"Consequently, we remain confident in our ambition to grow adjusted earnings by 50% by 2030."

At 0951 BST, shares in Tritax Big Box were up 0.48% at 153.83p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.

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