Shares in Tritax Big Box REIT surged nearly 5% on Wednesday after the UK government approved its Manor Farm data centre near Heathrow, in a decision that came as a surprise: just hours earlier that morning the company had told shareholders the ruling would not arrive until 7 July.
The shares closed at 151p on Wednesday, up 4.9% from 144p the previous session, on elevated volume of more than 17 million shares. On Thursday they were trading at 151.6p, a modest further extension of the gain.
Approval and delay notice arrived on the same morning
On Wednesday morning Tritax issued a regulatory announcement stating the Secretary of State had updated the Manor Farm planning timeline to 7 July. Within the same session the decision arrived. The Minister of State for Housing and Planning, Matthew Pennycook, granted consent on behalf of the Secretary of State, according to Alliance News. The Manor Farm scheme targets 107 megawatts of capacity and has been classified as critical national infrastructure. Management has described it as the company’s first foray into artificial intelligence infrastructure, noting last month the project was “primed for launch.”
Manor Farm is one of two data centre schemes Tritax is pursuing. Together with a planned second project in Chelmsford, the two sites represent more than 230 megawatts of capacity, with the potential to generate £58 million of annual rent at targeted yields of 9% to 11% on cost, the company said at its February full-year results.
Planning consent had originally been expected in the second half of 2025 before the Secretary of State called in the application, a step management said it viewed positively. The decision was subsequently signalled for 17 March, then pushed back again before Wednesday’s outcome. With consent secured, the next milestone is agreeing a pre-let before construction begins, with a completion window of between October 2027 and March 2028, according to QuotedData.
The consensus analyst price target for BBOX stands at around 180p, according to EODHD data, well above Thursday’s trading level. At the February results, Chief Executive Colin Godfrey described the data centre push as positioning Tritax for “multi-year compounding growth,” with an ambition to grow adjusted earnings by 50% by 2030.
With planning in hand, the focus now moves to occupier negotiations. Management has previously said that assuming planning and a pre-let are both achieved this year, a substantial part of the capital profit could be recognised in the current financial year, giving the timeline for any tenant announcement added significance.