British Land sells €95m of retail parks

UK REIT British Land has sold two retail parks in Dumbarton and Cwmbran, UK, for a total of £78 mln (€95 mln).

St James Retail Park in Dumbarton has been sold to The Legal & General Property Unit Trust for £45.75 mln, reflecting a net initial yield 5.9%.

Cwmbran Retail Park has been sold to UBS for £32.3 mln, or a net initial yield 6.4%.

The 250,000 sq ft (23,200 m2) St James Retail Park is anchored by Asda, M&S Simply Food and Homebase and other occupiers include Argos, Halfords and Frankie & Benny's. Cwmbran Retail Park comprises 136,000 sq ft with retailers including B&Q, Next, TK Maxx, Brantano, Currys/PC World and Pets at Home.

'These sales are in line with our strategy to further focus our retail portfolio on high-quality, locally preferred shopping destinations,' said Charles Maudsley, head of Retail for British Land. 'Over the last 12 months, we have sold £386 mln of retail assets which is broadly matched by the acquisitions we’ve made. Our most significant acquisition was SouthGate, a high-quality shopping centre in Bath.'

British Land was represented by CBRE (Dumbarton) and Savills (Cwmbran). Legal & General was represented by Strutt & Parker and UBS by Cushman & Wakefield.