Activists highlight a Big Yellow warning sign for the London market
A trickle of sales to foreign buyers risks becoming a flood
The “for sale” sign at British property group Big Yellow is as hard to miss as the luminous warehouses that give the company its name. Two activist investors are pushing for a deal, arguing that it is under-appreciated on public markets. The worry, for those who care about London’s position as a listings hub, is that they could make a similar case for many of its peers.
Big Yellow has a portfolio worth a net £2.6bn, but a market capitalisation of just £1.8bn. It used to regularly trade above net asset value, but the stock has struggled as the UK grapples with high interest rates and low growth.
Its answer to the activists is, unsurprisingly, that it “continually evaluates all options”. Big Yellow has considered selling itself before: last year it reached out to potential buyers including Blackstone, which took a detailed look but could not agree on a price.
A sale to a foreign buyer isn’t in itself a problem. Self-storage is useful but hardly a critical industry like defence. Nor is Big Yellow a much-beloved brand that would constitute a symbolic loss. If it was bought by, say, a large US self-storage specialist with ample access to financing, the UK economy could ultimately benefit as it would become easier for Big Yellow to grow.
But the risk is that a trickle of exits becomes a flood, and other companies find it harder to raise capital locally. Pushing for such deals is becoming a popular activist tactic. One in five European activist campaigns included M&A demands in the first five months of 2026, according to Alvarez & Marsal, up from 8 per cent in the same period last year.
Property groups could be particularly vulnerable. Many executives would identify with Big Yellow’s struggle to shrink a discount to net asset value. The number of London-listed real estate investment trusts already fell by a quarter in the three years to July. And it’s easier for activists to build an influential stake when even market leaders like Big Yellow are only worth a few billion pounds.
Management teams can’t do much about interest rates — that’s more of a question for Prime Minister Andy Burnham, whose first Budget is due later this month — but there are still some things they control. Even the largest remaining groups like Land Securities and British Land are small by international standards. Perhaps they could go on the offensive with deals of their own?
Last year investors in NHS landlord Assura rejected a take-private offer in favour of merging with domestic peer Primary Health Properties; the enlarged group currently trades closer to book value than most REITs. True, more deals like that means a smaller number of companies. But hosting fewer, larger groups would be better than losing the entire sector.