More than £500m of shopping centres are set to change hands as established UK players put their faith in the regional retail market.
Land Securities and TIAA Henderson Real Estate are leading a flurry of activity this week with off-market discussions to swap their stakes in the 600,000 sq ft Buchanan Galleries in Glasgow and 568,000 sq ft Princesshay shopping centre in Exeter, Devon.
The proposed deal would see TH Real Estate partner with the Crown Estate in Exeter and would give LandSec full control of Buchanan Galleries.
The two stakes are valued at around £200m each.
Elsewhere in Scotland, Oaktree Capital Management, in joint venture with Mark Hunter’s fund management group Hunter, is in talks to buy the 266,500 sq ft Cameron Toll mall in Edinburgh for £46m – a 7% yield – from Hudson Advisors and Irish investor Warren Private Clients.
And in Surrey, CBRE Global Investors has gone under offer to buy the Ashley Centre in Epsom from Carlyle and Bride Hall for £80m – a 6% yield. It is thought to have beaten competition from bidders including Legal & General and Grosvenor for the 311,500 sq ft mall, which was brought to market in July for £70m – a 6.6% yield.
The deals highlight the growing momentum throughout the regional shopping centre investment market. Mall transaction volumes in the UK could reach £6.5bn by the end of the year, according to Savills, a level not seen since 2006.
LandSec has been reshaping its retail portfolio to focus on “dominance, experience and convenience” over the past year, and the proposed swap with
TH Real Estate would allow
it to take full advantage of the transformation of Buchanan Galleries into a 1.2m sq ft retail and leisure destination.
Last month, chief executive Rob Noel said: “We will continue to sell assets that don’t meet our criteria as we focus on the best retail assets, including the development of new retail centres in key locations such as Oxford and Glasgow.”
LandSec has recently bought a 30% stake in Bluewater in Kent for £656m – a 4.1% yield – and sold the Bridges in Sunderland and a 50% stake in the 1.4m sq ft Cabot Circus in Bristol as part of its fresh retail strategy.
Coady Supple is acting for Hudson/Warren; Cushman & Wakefield and Strutt & Parker are advising Carlyle/Bride Hall.
annabel.dixon@estatesgazette.com
