Mall owner disposes of four sites
THE Mall Fund, a major investor in shopping centres in the UK, yesterday offloaded four
sites for £135.9m.
The fund, set up by Capital & Regional and Aviva Investors in 2002, sold the shopping centres to clients of Rockspring Property Investment Managers as part of its drive to cut debts.
The Liberty 2 Shopping Centre in Romford was sold along with the Eastgate Shopping Centre in Gloucester, the Marlands Shopping Centre in Southampton, and the Howgate Centre in Falkirk.
They were valued at £128.1m at the end of June and sold for six per cant above that figure, comfortably beating analyst expectations.
Capital & Regional and Aviva last month obtained consent from investors and bondholders to restructure £1bn of loans held by The Mall Fund. It must now cut the fund’s loan-to-value ratio to 65 per cent in 2014 from the current 80 per cent.
Other investors in The Mall Fund include the Prudential, Isis Property Asset Management, ING Real Estate, Scottish Widows, Hermes Real Estate, F&C Asset Management, Arlington Property Investors, Sparinvest and pension fund APG.
The sale reduces the number of centres the Mall Fund owns to 12. Its most recent project was a £66m development in Blackburn that opened at the end of July.