Tritax Big Box Reit plc will buy automated logistics facilities that serve major online retailers such as Amazon. The company aims to acquire four or five warehouses of between 50,000 and a million square feet, at an asset value of £50-90m each.

It has also secured a senior loan of £150m from Barclays and aims to grow its asset value to around £1bn over the next couple of years.

The initial public offering is the first time that investors will be offered direct exposure to this fast-growing asset class.

Some retail REITs have invested in distribution property, but this is the first to focus purely on "big box" large-scale logistics facilities.

Tritax Big Box will be led by Richard Jewson, chairman of London-listed commercial property group Raven Russia, and aim to achieve a dividend yield of 6 percent and net shareholder return of over 9 per cent. The REIT will be managed and advised by Tritax Group, an investment manager that already has £1.2bn of commercial property assets under management, with tenants including Amazon, Next and The Range.

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