AXA Real Estate Investment Managers has reached agreement on the acquisition of a 50% stake in Cabot Circus shopping centre in the UK city of Bristol for £267.8 mln (€335.5 mln).

AXA Real Estate Investment Managers has reached agreement on the acquisition of a 50% stake in Cabot Circus shopping centre in the UK city of Bristol for £267.8 mln (€335.5 mln).

AXA is buying the half ownership share from UK REIT Land Securities, which had a 50:50 joint venture with Hammerson. The acquisition is subject to clearance from the EU merger control authorities.

Under the deal, Hammerson, also a UK REIT, will retain its 50% stake in Cabot Circus and be responsible for the management of the centre, including leasing and marketing. AXA Real Estate will have a strategic asset management role on behalf of its clients.

JLL acted as advisers to Land Securities.

Cabot Circus is one of the UK’s top 20 shopping centres. It comprises 127,277 m2 of retail, leisure, car parking, residential, hotel and student accommodation. The centre was one of the largest retail-led city centre urban regeneration projects in the UK when it opened in September 2008. It has a residential catchment population of 2.4 million and recorded an annual footfall of 18.2 million visitors in 2013.

AXA RE said the acquisition is in line with its belief that large-format, multi-channel retail outlets such as shopping centres that incorporate leisure and entertainment facilities, are largely immune to the structural changes brought about by the shift to online retailing.

Julian Best, head of UK asset management at AXA Real Estate, commented: ‘This acquisition clearly demonstrates our continuing ability to transact high quality assets outside of London and the South East on behalf of our clients. We look forward to working with Hammerson to realise the full potential of this already dominant shopping centre.’

Martin Perrott, senior transaction manager at AXA Real Estate, added: ‘Together with Hammerson, we believe that we will be able to enhance the centre through the introduction of more catering in order to adapt to changing consumer habits and multi-channel retailing, enabling us to continue to add value for our clients.’

AXA Real Estate has €8.4 bn of retail assets under management (as per-end March 2014) in 13 European countries, including over 30 shopping centres.