UK – A British Airways pension fund has sold a retail property in Stoke, central England, for £14.3m (€21.2m).

Warner Estate Holdings said its Radial Distribution Fund joint venture with Bank of Scotland has bought Radial Point, reflecting a net initial yield of 6.08%.

It said: "Radial Point, in Stoke, is a 183,000sq ft new build unit purchased from BA Pension Fund. Let to Marks & Spencer on a 10-year lease, the property provides an annual income of £918,750."

Michael Stevens, property director at Warner said: "Following the purchase earlier this month of the Howdens Joinery distribution unit at Brackmills, the addition of this new build asset represents further significant growth for the fund in the prime Golden Triangle strong hold."

The deficit in the airline’s New Airways Pension Scheme (NAPS) is set to rise to £2.1bn (€3.1bn) from £928m, the airline said last month.

Fund assets now stand at £5.846bn while liabilities are £7.907bn. This is "despite a doubling of BA's contributions and a recovery of the stock market".

A letter from trustee chairman Roger Maynard to members stated he’s been advised by PricewaterhouseCoopers that BA "could make a cash lump sum available to the scheme of more than the £500m it has proposed".