Hammerson has completed sale of the £140m sale of Silverburn, a 100,000 m sq shopping centre near Glasgow.
Hammerson is awarded £70m of the sale as Silverburn was part of 50/50 joint venture with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
Silverburn, which offers dining brands such as Five Guys, Zizzi, Pizza Hut and Wagamama, has been sold to London-based European private equity real estate firm, Henderson Park.
Christophe Kuhbier, Managing Director of Henderson Park, said, “Silverburn with its large catchment area close to one of the UK’s largest cities has limited direct competition and posted robust footfall levels and cash collection this year.
“With retail valuations under pressure in recent years, we have been monitoring the UK prime retail market and we see here an excellent opportunity to acquire this asset off-market and invest in a modern asset with immediate upside potential.
'Alongside our specialist operating partner Eurofund, our asset management plan aims at attracting new occupiers that focus on leisure, food and beverage and experiential retail sectors, completing the repositioning of the asset as a premier retail and leisure destination.
“We look forward to investing targeted capital expenditure to maximise the potential of this asset and delivering strong returns to our investors.”
Hammerson has also sold five other assets totalling £22m, which represent a collection of non-strategic commercial and retail assets.
All these disposals are in line with the company's strategy of reducing debt, simplifying the portfolio and generating capital for redeployment.
The proceeds of these disposals will further strengthen the balance sheet by reducing net debt, ahead of reinvestment in flagship assets for growth.
Together with minority stake disposals of French and UK assets (£73m) and the UK Retail Parks portfolio (£330m) sold in the first half of 2021, the latest transactions take Hammerson's total gross proceeds from sales in 2021 to £495m.