Yew Grove REIT plc (LSE:YEW, Euronext:YEW), which owns a diversified portfolio of Irish commercial property assets, is pleased to announce a positive rent collection update.
Rent Collection Update
Yew Grove is pleased to provide an update on rent collections in the second quarter following the statement on 15 April in which it reported that it expected to collect at least 95% of Q2 2020 rents. As at 4 June, the Board is pleased to report collections of 97% for the second quarter rent, which is in excess of our expectations as at 15 April 2020. This includes all of the monthly rental payments due in the quarter. The Company has agreed a temporary rent deferral with a repayment plan on an additional 1.9% of the unpaid balance, bringing the total to 98.9% in due course, with the remainder due from non-food retail outlets which have been closed and are expected to reopen soon and with whom we have begun discussions.
Jonathan Laredo, Chief Executive of Yew Grove, commented:
“We are encouraged that the strength of our tenant covenant across the portfolio and our close relationships with the occupiers of our buildings ensured our collections for the second quarter have remained robust despite the very challenging market conditions. As previously stated on 15 April, we expect to announce a second quarter dividend at the end of June following a Board meeting to review our quarterly results.
“Our focus on tenant credit quality (with 95.3% of our rent roll from Government bodies or multi-nationals and large Irish enterprises) and our lack of exposure to non-food retail (1.2% of the quarterly rent roll) has served, and should continue to serve, us well. We are talking frequently to each of our building occupiers to ensure that we understand what they need both in terms of the ongoing management of the premises whilst they do not occupy them, additional asset management needed from us and, where necessary, assistance to try to ensure that we both weather this crisis. We will be reporting on our expectation for third quarter rent collections in early July.”
