Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has provided £250m (€218m) in debt to UK shopping centre owner and operator Intu.

The subordinated facility will support corporate business plans and is indirectly secured by the Intu Trafford Centre in Manchester.

The Trafford Centre is a 1.9m sqft shopping centre in the north of England and has more than 230 stores and 65 catering and leisure units, spread across four arcades and two floors.

The investment was made by CPPIB’s Credit Investments subsidiary.

Geoff Souter, managing director and head of private real estate debt at CPPIB, said: “This investment fits well with our strategy of providing customised, large-scale funding solutions to best-in-class operators of high-quality underlying real estate assets.

“Intu is a valued CPPIB partner and we look forward to continue partnering with them to support their growth objectives, while at the same time, delivering solid risk-adjusted returns for the CPP fund.”

CPPIB and Intu have joint ownerships in leading shopping centres in Spain, including Intu Asturias in Oviedo and Puerto Venecia in Zaragoza.

Matthew Roberts, chief financial officer at Intu, said: “We are delighted to build on our relationship with CPPIB and this facility gives us further flexibility to progress our development pipeline, extending and enhancing our centres.”