Shopping centres in focus in a big year for deals
Helical Bar today announced it has exchanged contracts to buy Newmarket Shopping Centre in Suffolk from the administrators for £17.75m, representing an initial yield of around 8%. Tenants include Marks and Spencer, Peacocks, and Argos. Allsops and CB Richard Ellis advised the vendor, while Lunson Mitchenall advised Helical Bar.
The news came as today’s Telegraph reports that more than £5bn of shopping-centre deals has been done in the UK this year, for the first time since 2006, as confidence returns to the sector. The paper quotes research by CB Richard Ellis saying that 40 shopping-centre acquisitions are expected to be completed in 2010, with an estimated £3.5bn of such property to be sold in the final quarter alone. The £5bn-plus total figure for the year is 58% higher than the combined total of 2008 and 2009, it notes.
The Q4 total includes the £1.6bn acquisition of the Trafford Centre in Manchester by Capital Shopping Centres and the £872m sale of 50% of the Stratford scheme by Westfield. Other transactions in the final quarter comprise Land Securities’ £142m purchase of Overgate in Dundee, British Land’s prospective £235m deal for Drake Circus in Plymouth, Westfield’s agreement to buy back 50% of Westfield Derby for £185m, and the acquisition of the Dolphin Shopping Centre in Poole by Dutch company Wereldhave for £80m.
