British Land snaps up retail park portfolio for £441m
British Land has acquired a portfolio of seven retail parks from Canadian investment giant Brookfield in a £441m deal.
To fund the deal, British Land has also announced a proposed equity placing of £300m, with the remainder financed from existing facilities.
The seven assets total 1.9m sq ft and are 99% occupied by major retailers alongside a superstore anchor. It cements British Land as one of the largest owners and operators of retail parks in the UK, with retail parks comprising 32% of its portfolio.
Assets include:
- Elliott’s Field Shopping Park, Rugby – fully occupied and anchored by M&S.
- Telford Forge Shopping Park, Telford – 96.2% occupied and anchored by Sainsbury’s.
- Chilwell Retail Park, Nottingham – fully occupied and anchored by M&S.
- Central Retail Park, Falkirk – fully occupied and anchored by both M&S and Tesco.
- Wellington Retail Park, Waterlooville -99.6% occupied and anchored by M&S.
- Ravenhead Retail Park, St Helens – 98.7% occupied and anchored by M&S.
- Cleveland Retail Park, Middlesbrough – 98.8% occupied and anchored by M&S.
Simon Carter, Chief Executive of British Land, said: “The acquisition of this high quality portfolio builds upon our market leading position in retail parks. Parks remain the preferred format for retailers and we have deployed £711m of capital into this subsector since 1 April 2024.
“These assets offer an attractive yield and strong rental growth prospects in line with our guidance of 3-5%. Combined with the proposed placing, they will be immediately earnings accretive and are expected to deliver double digit ungeared IRRs.
“The broader business also continues to trade well with a good level of leasing in the period and cost discipline underpinning our profit performance. We expect portfolio values to be marginally up for the half year, with continued ERV growth across the portfolio.”
