British Land has completed a flurry of retail park acquisitions for £240m, reflecting a blended net equivalent yield of 7.4%.
The company has purchased the Orchard Centre in Didcot and Cyfarthfa Shopping Park in Merthyr Tydfil, from Brookfield; Enham Arch Retail Park in Andover, Queen’s Drive Retail Park in Kilmarnock and St David’s Retail Park in Bangor, which were acquired from M7 Real Estate; Southampton Road Retail Park in Salisbury; and it has also purchased the remaining 12.5% interest in New Mersey Retail Park in Speke.
The retail parks have a weighted average unexpired lease term of five years and are let to multi-channel and essential retailers with strong covenants.
British Land said the acquisitions were in line with its plans to reinvest the £360m it received from the sale of Meadowhall shopping centre into growing its retail park portfolio.
Simon Carter (pictured), chief executive 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. With low capex requirements, parks offer attractive cash returns and, with 99% occupancy, our portfolio is delivering strong rental growth.”
