Tritax Creates First 'Big Box' UK REIT

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Commercial property fund Tritax is looking to raise £200 million for the first listed "big box" U.K. real estate investment trust, hoping to benefit from a growing demand for e-commerce warehouses. 

Tritax Big Box Reit plc plans to invest in logistics facilities that serve online retailers such as Amazon. The new REIT will acquire four or five warehouses, or "big boxes," between 50,000 and one million square feet, with an asset value of £50 million to £90 million each, the Financial Times reports. 

The trust has also secured a £150 million senior loan from Barclays. The REIT will float on the London Stock Exchange's specialist fund market and the Channel Islands Stock Exchange, the Telegraph reports. Shares are expected to start trading next month. 

The REIT will not hold any property assets when first launched - a situation allowed after REIT rules were changed last year to allow a launch without holding a certain portion of assets as property, FT reports.

Tritax has acted as investment manager for more than 20 percent of all U.K. big box deals including Amazon and Next, according to the Telegraph. The new REIT expects to increase its net asset value to £1 billion.

"With occupier demand greatly outstripping supply...  and almost a complete lack of speculative development, improved rents and capital appreciation should be achievable," Colin Godfrey, a Tritax partner, told FT.