British Land has acquired three retail parks for £94m and sold its 50% stake in a retail park in Preston for £30m.
In Farnborough, it has acquired the 90,000 sq ft Solartron Retail Park for £35m (7.65% NIY) and in Cambridge, it has acquired a 20,000 sq ft retail warehouse on Newmarket Road occupied by DFS for £7.35m (7.14% NIY).
In Preston, the company has bought the 300,000 sq ft Capitol Retail and Leisure Park from Royal London Asset Management for £51.5m, representing a net initial yield (NIY) of 8.43%.
Paul Nicholson, senior asset manager at Royal London Asset Management, said: “Royal London is delighted to complete on the sale of the Capitol Retail and Leisure Park, Preston. The sale represents a successful completion of the asset plan having managed to recently achieve full occupancy across both parks”.
Drew Watkins, portfolio fund manager for The Royal London UK Real Estate Fund, added: “This is an excellent sale in a challenging market which allows the fund to recycle capital into developments that we consider to offer better future performance prospects”.
Savills advised Royal London. British Land was represented by Morgan Williams.
British Land said it had also sold its stake in Deepdale Retail Park in Preston to Milford Capital for £30.3m (7.5% NIY/BL share), in line with its strategy of actively recycling capital.
Kelly Cleveland, head of strategy and investment at British Land, said: “With retailers increasingly focused on the role of their stores, retail parks have emerged as a preferred format, due to their compatibility with omni channel retail, their affordability and appeal to online resilient businesses. This is driving good occupational demand across the portfolio reflected in our 97% occupancy and growing ERVs.”
