UK - Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Australia's Future Fund are among potential co-investors alongside Henderson Global Investor's £650m (€825m) UK Shopping Centre Fund, after investor approval was granted for a seven-year extension.

Under the terms of the extension agreement, Henderson will attempt to raise £200m in additional capital, which could include equity from co-investment partners, to acquire new prime assets for the portfolio.

A spokeswoman for the fund manager said co-investment partners for new assets could be either new or existing investors in the fund, but she added that Henderson only co-invested with institutions of significant size.

Among the fund's existing assets is the Bullring in Birmingham, a three-way joint venture involving Hammerson and the Future Fund. CPPIB, meanwhile, is a 50% owner of the Whitefriars Canterbury shopping centre. Henderson also advised CPPIB on its joint acquisition with Dutch pension fund manager APG of the Olympics-adjacent Westfield shopping centre in east London.

"It would be reasonable to expect that these would be the kind of institutions most likely to co-invest," the spokeswoman said.

The extension agreed this week will also allow Henderson to progress work on the portfolio's development projects. Two of the fund's four current assets are developments: the Buchanan Galleries in Glasgow and the St James Centre in Edinburgh.

However, a cap on development capacity will mean new assets added to the exclusively prime fund will need to be existing assets, rather than development projects.

Henderson needed approval from 75% of investors to extend the fund, although the company declined to reveal the size of the mandate today.

CBRE data published this week suggested that shopping centre development had dropped 10% in the past six months, in what it described as an overdue pipeline shakeout.

With only five shopping centre developments currently underway in the UK, CBRE said in a research note that any significant upturn would be contingent on a sustained economic upturn that does not appear likely in the medium term.

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