The Crown Estate, the company that manages the British royal family’s property holdings, has sold two retail parks in the UK for a total of £177.2 mln (€229.7 mln).
The Crown Estate, the company that manages the British royal family’s property holdings, has sold two retail parks in the UK for a total of £177.2 mln (€229.7 mln).
Morfa Retail Park in Swansea, Wales, was acquired by real estate investor AshbyCapital for £83.5 mln on behalf of its group investment company.
The 24,000 m2 property is fully let to tenants including Morrisons, Currys, PC World and Argos. Quadrant Estates has been appointed as asset manager.
The Bath Road Retail Park in Slough was sold to Royal London Asset Management for €93.65 mln.
Hannah Milne, head of The Crown Estate’s regional portfolio, said: ‘As we continue to focus on larger, more dominant schemes, now is the right time to sell and take advantage of strong capital markets, following the successful delivery of our asset management strategies for these parks.’
Peter Ferrari, chief executive of AshbyCapital, said: ‘As Swansea’s premier shopping park and the dominant retail centre in the South West of the country, Morfa Shopping Park is an excellent addition to our portfolio. This acquisition offers stable core income at an attractive yield with the prospect for further growth through asset management.’
Michael Lawrence, Fund Manager at Royal London Asset Management, said: ‘The acquisition of the Bath Road Shopping Park is a great addition to our property portfolio. The park offers latent asset management potential and given the strong south east location, rental growth prospects are favourable.’
Wilkinson Williams acted for The Crown Estate on the sale of Morfa Shopping Park with CWM acting for Ashby Capital. CWM acted for The Crown Estate on the sale of Bath Road Retail Park, while Wilkinson Williams advised Royal London.
The Crown Estate’s shopping park portfolio is currently valued at £1.5 bn and includes schemes in locations such as Leicester, Newcastle and Aintree. The Crown Estate also owns interests in three shopping centres, Exeter’s Princesshay, Oxford’s Westgate Centre, and Worcester’s CrownGate.
