Big Yellow Raises £100 Million for Acquisitions

The self storage company sold 7.75 million new shares for £12.90 each – a 0.9% discount to the closing price on 23 June. The shares represent 4.4% of Big Yellow’s ordinary share capital before the placing. The placing has been successfully completed, and we are very grateful to our shareholders for their support.” The placing raised £100m before costs. Announcing the share sale after the market closed on Wednesday, Big Yellow said it was raising cash to fund £145m of acquisitions. The company will pay £119m including debt to buy…

Successful Site Selection with Comprehensive Self Storage Market Data

The UK self storage market consists of a broad demographic, from one and two-store owners to large, multi-site operators like Safestore, Big Yellow, Access, Lok’n Store, Shurgard, Space Maker, Storage King and HSIL Property. Their brands and locations are widely recognized while smaller players tend to be privately owned and operate on a small-scale basis as local companies. The pandemic proved self storage to be a recession-tolerant industry, observing average price increases of £10.13 year over year. Paired with the fact that the UK is still relatively underserved at less…

Self Storage Giant Doubles Size of Wrexham Site After £150K Revamp

Business is booming for a fast-growing self storage company which has just re-opened one of its Wrexham storage parks after a £150,000 refurbishment. That included an extension to their Whitegates facility, on the town’s Queensway, by Lock Stock Self-Storage which has more than doubled its capacity to 130 units with a quarter of a million cubic metres of storage space. This was one of the company’s first sites and opened in 2003 and we added a second site on Ruabon Road four years ago and its 180 storage units are…

Carlisle, England

Market of the Month is a regular feature in List Self Storage where we focus on a particular city and then delve into StorTrack’s substantial data reserves to find some interesting and informative insights into the market from a self storage business perspective. This month, we take a look at Carlisle, England, the “Great Border City”. The City Home to the main campuses of the University of Cumbria and a variety of museums and heritage centres, Carlisle has a population of 109,183. During the Middle Ages, because of its proximity…

Janus International Completes Merger to Become Public Company

Janus International Group, a manufacturer of doors and other products for self-storage and industrial facilities, has joined the small cadre of publicly traded companies in the self storage industry. Janus’ stock started trading June 8 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock opened the day at $14 per share and closed at $13.89 per share. In December, Janus executives estimated the stock listing would lead to a market capitalization of $1.4 billion and an equity valuation of $1.9 billion. A ‘blank check’ merger Temple, GA-based Janus went public through…

Acquisition Review: Rent-A-Space Shrewsbury

The Deal Recently, Heitman LLC., a global real estate investment management firm, acquired Rent-A-Space Shrewsbury. The investment marks the first acquisition expanding Space Station, a UK self storage platform that a Heitman affiliate acquired in late 2020, and is the platform’s first storage solution in the West Midlands region. Upon acquisition of the property, Heitman plans to complete the remaining lease-up of the asset while converting bulk space into additional conventional self storage units as part of the value proposition of the acquisition. The Facility The asset was purpose-built in…

Commercial Property: Room for Growth in Self Storage Sector

People decluttering to make space for home offices, a booming property market and the growth of online retailers have all led to the use of self storage space in the UK reaching a record level of 82 per cent of lettable space occupied. This new high coincides with the largest annual increase in occupancy levels since records began in 2004. Revenues of self storage operators increased by 16 per cent annually to £890 million in 2020, as clients retained their services longer due to lockdowns and more enquiries moved online…

Heitman Expands UK’s Oldest Private Self Storage Platform

Heitman LLC (“Heitman”), a global real estate investment management firm, has announced the acquisition of Rent-A-Space Shrewsbury, a high-quality UK self storage asset by an affiliate of Heitman. The investment marks the first acquisition expanding Space Station, a UK self storage platform that a Heitman affiliate acquired in late 2020, and is the platform’s first storage solution in the West Midlands region. The asset was purpose-built in 2016 and comprises approximately 58,000 square feet of net rentable area and is in the final stages of its lease-up. Upon acquisition of…

List Self Storage Expands to United Kingdom

List Self Storage (ListSelfStorage.com; “List”), the premier online platform for connecting buyers and sellers of self storage facilities, development land and conversion opportunities, has launched ListSelfStorage.co.uk to serve the growing property acquisition community in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. List Self Storage is a product of StorTrack, the world’s leading self storage data provider. “The growth in demand in the UK is fueling increased investment and development in self storage, just as it continues to do in the US and elsewhere. List has proven success in connecting buyers and…