UK REIT British Land has acquired £240 mln (€285 mln) of retail parks since April, in line with its plan to use the £360 mln in proceeds from the sale of Meadowhall Shopping Centre to expand the portfolio.
The acquisitions reflect a blended net equivalent yield of 7.4%, and will increase full-year 2026 earnings per share by 0.7p, fully offsetting the dilution from the Meadowhall disposal, the company said.
The six retail parks acquired have a weighted average unexpired lease term of five years, and comprise: Orchard Centre in Didcot and Cyfarthfa Shopping Park in Merthyr Tydfil acquired from Brookfield; Enham Arch Retail Park in Andover; Queen’s Drive Retail Park in Kilmarnock and St David’s Retail Park in Bangor acquired from M7 Real Estate; and Southampton Road Retail Park in Salisbury.
In addition, British Land has acquired the remaining 12.5% interest in New Mersey Retail Park in Speke.
Simon Carter, CEO of British Land, said: ‘We are seeing good opportunities to allocate capital into retail parks, and have swiftly delivered our plan to fully offset the earnings dilution from the £360m Meadowhall disposal with the acquisition of £240m of high quality retail parks at attractive yields.’
He added: ‘With low capex requirements, parks offer attractive cash returns and, with 99% occupancy, our portfolio is delivering strong rental growth.’
