UK REIT Hammerson has sold two retail parks in the South East of England to clients of BMO Real Estate Partners for £80 mln (€92 mln).
The sale price represents a net initial yield of 6.5% and is slightly below the December 2016 book value.
The retail parks, Westwood and Westwood Gateway Retail Park, cover a total of 24,900 m2 and are located in the county of Kent.
Hammerson acquired Westwood Retail Park in 2002 and has since repositioned the asset through extensions and tenant engineering. The adjacent Westwood Gateway site was constructed in 2005 and a new retail terrace was added in 2009.
A further extension of two units was added in 2016. Since acquisition, over 15,000 m2 of new floor space has been added and the rental income has increased by over 200%. Tenants include homeware retailers Homebase, Wren, Tapi, SCS and Dunelm.
David Atkins, CEO Hammerson, commented: 'We continue to actively manage our retail park portfolio, realising proceeds to recycle into higher growth opportunities. We are progressing with our planned disposal programme for the year and remain committed to reducing leverage ahead of progressing with our development pipeline.'
