Shopping complex and development giants, NewRiver Retail is to raise £150m through a share placing.
The majority of the funds raised will be used by NewRiver to acquire 13 retail parks. Nine of the 13 sites are investment properties (£64m) and four are assets which also have development potential (£6m). Each property asset is adjacent to a store occupied by one of the major grocers.
The group, which acquired 202 pubs from Marston's in 2013 for potential development as convenience stores, will use around £29m of the £150m to purchase the 50% stake in the Marston’s portfolio not owned by NewRiver.
David Lockhart, Chief Executive of NewRiver Retail, commented, 'NewRiver has enjoyed significant progress from its foundation in 2009, when it commenced business with just £25 million of seed capital. Since then we have demonstrated a track record of delivering strong returns for shareholders by deploying our highly regarded active asset management and risk-controlled development skills.
'Support for our strategy has been evidenced by a series of successful equity issues to propel growth.
'Today's equity fundraising will give us the ability to boost the gross asset value of the business to in excess of £1 billion.'