4 NEWS ... In brief


Liverpool One refinanced The Grosvenor Liverpool Fund has secured a £385m refinancing for its 1.6m sq ft Liverpool One mixed-use scheme. The refinancing agreement was signed with RBS, Eurohypo, Dekabank and Credit Agricole. The five-year deal replaces the original funding put in place six years ago to cover both the development phase and the initial period of trading at the million-sq ft open-air centre.


Border police raid Reading Four people have been arrested following a UK Border Agency operation at the Oracle shopping centre in Reading. Acting on intelligence, and with the full co-operation of management, officers visited the Oracle Centre on Sunday 19 December to carry out checks on the staff working on RMUs there. Two men and two women were arrested for working in breach of their visa conditions. All were Israeli nationals in their 20s, and were detained pending their removal from the UK.


Galleries sold for £50m Capital & Regional and Aviva’s Mall fund has sold The Galleries shopping centre in Bristol to HSBC European Active Real Estate Trust for £50.2m. The sale price reflects a premium to the 30 September 2010 valuation. Situated in the heart of Bristol’s Broadmead shopping district, the Galleries is occupied by a mix of independent retailers such as @moss and Greetings Galore and larger stores such as Boots and WH Smith. Capital & Regional has an interest of 16.7 per cent in the Mall Fund.


Simon pulls out of CSC bid


Simon Property Group has announced that it will not now make a formal bid for Capital Shopping Centres.


The US giant had been given


a deadline of 12 January to either make a firm offer for CSC or to walk away and it has announced that it will not bid. It attacked the CSC board for frustrating its


efforts by not allowing it to carry out due diligence. And Simon reiterated its


opposition to CSC’s proposed purchase of the Trafford Centre, saying: “The CSC board is still proposing to relieve the owner of the Trafford Centre of a potential tax liability of more than £300 million and to transfer significant


control of CSC to Peel at a discounted price.” And it warned that it may now


sell its 5.11 per cent stake in CSC. CSC has revised the terms


of its £1.6bn bid for the Trafford Centre, reducing the overall stake which Peel Holdings would own in CSC after the deal from 23 to 22 per cent.


Legal & General buys Fremlin


Walk, Maidstone


British Land Buys Drake Circus for £240m


British Land has bought the 425,000-sq ft Drake Circus in Plymouth to show a 6 per cent yield. Located in the middle


of Plymouth, Drake Circus is the West Country’s most popular shopping destination. Developed by P&O in 2006, and subsequently sold to Kandahar and Morgan Stanley, it has over 70 retail units anchored by


SHOPPING CENTRE January 2011 www.shopping-centre.co.uk


Primark, Marks & Spencer and Next with other key occupiers including Top Shop, New Look, Boots and H&M and Cult/ Superdry and Republic. The acquisition of Drake


Circus is in line with British Land’s strategy of focusing on locations where it is able to provide retailers with high quality, accessible and flexible retail formats.


Legal & General Property’s UK Property Income Fund has bought Fremlin Walk Shopping Centre, Maidstone, from Europa Capital and Scoop Asset Management for £92m. Charlie Walker, senior fund manager for the UK Property Income Fund, said: “Fremlin Walk Shopping Centre represents a good opportunity to acquire a core, multi-let, mid-sized shopping centre at an attractive yield. Purchased off-market, the deal is in line with the fund’s strategy of identifying well-located assets with a strong tenant base but still offering the potential for active management.”


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