Danish fashion mogul and Scotland’s second-biggest landlord Anders Holch Povlsen has completed his acquisition of Jenners department store in Edinburgh.
The billionaire has paid £53m – a yield of 4.68% – for the property, which is the oldest department store in Scotland.
The deal is Povlsen’s first commercial acquisition in Scotland. The chief executive and sole owner of Danish company Bestseller owns several clothing brands including Vero Moda and Jack and Jones.
The 179,451 sq ft building at 47-52 Princes Street is let to Jenners, which is owned by House of Fraser, at a passing rent of around £2.6m pa.
German investor Triuva, which also bought Quartermile 4 in May for £68m, was previously in talks to buy the department store. However, a deal was never completed and the asset was remarketed through Sheridan Property Consultants.
There is still 23 years remaining on the property’s lease to Jenners, and Polvsen has not yet revealed his intentions for the asset.
The department store was originally named Kennington & Jenner after its founders Charles Kennington and Charles Jenner, who opened it in 1838 to sell fine textiles.
The current building was completed in 1895 by William Hamilton Beattie, the architect behind much of Edinburgh’s skyline, including the Balmoral Hotel, after the original premises was destroyed in a fire.
House of Fraser acquired the asset in 2005 and sold the freehold to Irish investor LMC for £37m.
Povlsen, whose land holdings in Scotland are second only to Richard Scott, the 10th Duke of Buccleuch, began building his Scottish empire with the acquisition of Glenfeshie estate in 2006 and has been buying up more land ever since. He now owns 11 estates totalling more than 218,000 acres – around 1% of Scotland’s land mass.
Povlsen also has a 27% stake in online fashion retailer Asos and has an estimated personal wealth of around £4.5bn, according to Forbes.
Sheridan Property acted for the vendor; HDH advised Anders Holch Povlsen.
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