SAN FRANCISCO: Activist investor Ancora Holdings Group has built a stake in UK-listed Big Yellow Group Plc and is pushing the self-storage company to explore a sale, according to a statement from the fund.
Ancora said Big Yellow has a resilient business model but has been materially undervalued in the public market, the statement said.
The fund believes that Big Yellow can deliver value to shareholders by launching a comprehensive strategic review, including a sale process, and soliciting interest from potential strategic and financial buyers.
Ancora said it has built a stake of more than 4% in Big Yellow and plans to engage constructively with the company’s board.
James Chadwick, president of Ancora Alternatives, unveiled its position and campaign on Tuesday at the Sohn San Francisco Investment Conference.
“We believe Big Yellow is an attractive asset for both financial sponsors and strategic acquirers given the company’s relative cheapness compared to US storage real estate investment trusts and the scarcity value of Big Yellow’s scaled UK portfolio,” the fund said in the presentation.
A representative for Big Yellow didn’t immediately provide a comment. The company said in October last year that “it had held meetings with a small number of parties in relation to a range of potential options including a potential sale of the company”, after private equity giant Blackstone Inc said it was considering a take private. The fund, however, dropped the plan in December.
Big Yellow said Goldman Sachs Group Inc was advising the company at the time.
Big Yellow, based in Surrey, UK, is the largest self-storage company in the country and has locations in London and the Southeast.
In May, it reported annual revenue of £209.1mil (US$276mil) for 2026, which increased 2% over the prior year and was the highest in five years.
Shares of Big Yellow, which have fallen 28% over the past year, giving the company a market value of about £1.6bil.
Ancora believes Big Yellow is undervalued because of slow UK economic growth, a week domestic housing market and its capital-intensive property development pipeline, according to the presentation.
The activist argues Big Yellow’s shares are currently trading at a 40% discount to its net asset value.
Big Yellow, however, can charge higher rents with its prime London-concentrated portfolio and growing customer demand, Ancora said.
Ancora believes that Big Yellow should have pursued a broader sale process and that interest for the company remains strong, which could result in a compelling price. Ancora named a few potential bidders for Big Yellow in the presentation, including investors Heitman, Nuveen and KKR & Co, as well as self-storage companies Public Storage and Extra Space Storage Inc. — Bloomberg
