Capital & Regional continues Mall Fund purchase

PROPERTY investor Capital & Regional is close to completing its aim of buying all the shares in The Mall Fund which owns six shopping centres, including The Mall in Blackburn.

Earlier this year it took its holding to 91% after agreeing a deal to buy Aviva’s 52% stake and Karoo’s 10.52% stake for around £213m.

Now it has agreed to buy a further 7.3% from seven minority shareholders for £27m. It will leave Capital & Regional with 99.1% of the fund.

The listed group started building its interest late last year when a £10.7m trade took its share from 26% to 29.2%.

The Mall Fund has gross assets of around £832.4m and revenues of £77.4m. Profit before financing was £22.8m last year. All the centres are in the south east apart from the 110-store Blackburn Mall in Church Street.