HUT, Crown Estate join forces in £680m deal

Hercules Unit Trust (HUT) and Crown Estate have teamed up in a £680 mln (EUR 998 mln) joint venture limited partnership. The 50/50 joint venture incorporates HUT's 51,096 m² Fort Kinnaird Shopping Park in Edinburgh, Crown Estate's 22,854 m² Gallagher Retail Park in Cheltenham and the 13,006 m² Shires Retail Park in Leamington.

British Land, which owns a 36.6% stake in HUT, will also act as property adviser to the new limited partnership. Giles Clarke, director of investment at Crown Estate, said: 'This transaction is of tremendous significance to us. It is possibly the best example to date of how Crown Estate has adapted and extended its reach in the last couple of years as part of a plan to diversify our portfolio and balance our exposure to the central London property market.'

HUT was created in September 2000 as a closed-ended Jersey property unit trust to invest in retail warehouses and shopping parks throughout the UK. HUT is the UK's largest specialist retail property unit trust with a property portfolio of £3.4 bn comprising of 22 retail and shopping parks

The Crown Estate is an estate valued at almost £6 bn, including substantial blocks of urban property, over 120,000 hectares of agricultural land in England, Scotland and Wales.