ING Retail Property Fund Britannica has splashed out £75m on a shopping centre in St Helens, near Liverpool.
ING Retail Property Fund Britannica has splashed out £75m on a shopping centre in St Helens, near Liverpool.
The UK shopping centre fund managed by ING Real Estate Investment Management has acquired Church Square from Analytical Properties, a 50:50 joint venture between London & Associated Properties and Bank of Scotland.
The purchase - the fund’s first since it launched in March 2005 - increases the value of the fund to above £600m. The initial yield is 5.18% and the equivalent yield is 5.56%. New equity for the acquisition has been raised from the fund’s existing investors, which include ABP, clients of Cushman & Wakefield Investors, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and KP.
Church Square, which was originally developed in 1972 and most recently refurbished in 1991, is 11 miles east of Liverpool and forms the dominant part of St Helen’s retail core. It is divided into two phases and comprises 317,318 sq ft (29,496 sq m) of retail space, anchored by Bhs and Boots.
The fund’s manager Aleks Hughes said. ‘ING Britannica has outperformed our expectations. It has produced a return of 31.7% in the 12 months to 30 June 2006.’
CB Richard Ellis acted on behalf of ING Britannica, while Donaldsons and Gooch Cunliffe Whale acted for Analytical.