Intu sells Northern Ireland retail park for 40 million pounds

British shopping centre operator Intu has sold Sprucefield Retail Park in Northern Ireland to NewRiver for 40 million pounds.

The 231,000-square-foot retail park is located in Lisburn and divided into five units, anchored by Sainsburys and B&Q.

Matthew Roberts, chief executive of Intu, said in a statement: “We announced our new strategy at the interim results in July. A key element of this is fixing the balance sheet which includes creating liquidity through disposals. We are pleased to conclude this transaction, which along with the part-disposal of Intu Derby and other sundry asset sales in 2019 brings the year to date disposals total to 268 million pounds.”

Once completed, the acquisition is expected to generate an additional 3.7 million pounds of annualised net property income for NewRiver.

NewRiver CEO Allan Lockhart, commented: “In addition to an attractive long-term income return, the development land offers the opportunity to deliver significant capital growth, leading to a very attractive total return. Our successful disposal programme in this financial year places us in a position to take advantage of current market dislocations and make highly accretive acquisitions such as Sprucefield Retail Park and the recently-acquired Poole Retail Park.”

Photo: Matthew Roberts. Courtesy of Intu