British Land is in pole position to buy the bulk of Dutch company Wereldhave’s UK assets, as revealed by EGi this week.
The UK REIT is understood to be in advanced discussions to buy the 407,000 sq ft Ealing Broadway shopping centre, W5, as well as a number of high street shops, for around £180m.
Legal & General Property, meanwhile, is in talks to buy the 530,000 sq ft Dolphin Centre in Poole, Dorset – Wereldhave’s other remaining UK retail asset – for around £60m, an 8% yield.
Wereldhave began quietly approaching investors in November with the opportunity to buy the two malls.
The firm bought the Dolphin Centre from Grosvenor for £80m in 2010 and Ealing Broadway from Legal & General Property for £155m in late 2011.
The sell-off represents an about-turn for the Hague-based business, which in 2010 unveiled ambitions to double the size of its portfolio in the UK.
However, its retail assets have failed to perform.
Its results in November showed that declining values of the two UK shopping centres and its circa £660m of US assets, which it is selling, have wiped more than €180m (£145m) off the value of its global portfolio.
Cushman & Wakefield is advising Wereldhave; Briant Champion Long is acting for L&G.
All parties declined to comment.
annabel.dixon@estatesgazette.com
