British Land sells stake in Meadowhall shopping centre

Property development and investment company British Land has sold its stake in Sheffield’s Meadowhall shopping centre for 360 million pounds.

In a statement, British Land said the move was in line with its current strategy to focus on retail parks and reduce exposure to covered shopping centres.

British Land offloaded its 50 percent stake in the shopping centre to its joint venture partner Norges Bank Investment Management, following the sale of some ancillary land for 7 million pounds earlier this year.

Together these deals value the entirety of the Meadowhall Estate at 734 million pounds.

British Land said the transaction is expected to complete in July and the proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, including reinvestment into retail parks.

In addition, British Land confirmed it would remain as asset manager of the shopping centre following the sale. Simon Carter, chief executive of British Land, said: “We have had a successful partnership with Norges over many years and are delighted to continue to work alongside them as asset managers of the centre.

“Following the sale of Meadowhall, 93 percent of our portfolio is now in our preferred segments of retail parks, campuses and London urban logistics. We will continue to grow our retail park portfolio; with low capex requirements parks offer attractive cash returns and at 99 percent occupancy we are delivering strong rental growth.”