M&G Real Estate is lining up the purchase of Fremlin Walk shopping centre in Maidstone, Kent.
The fund manager is in talks to buy the 350,000 sq ft scheme from Legal & General Property, on behalf of its UK Property Income Fund, for more than £100m – a 6% yield.
Fremlin Walk is anchored by a 100,000 sq ft House of Fraser department store and has tenants including H&M, Next, Zara and Boots.
It comes just a few months after L&G decided to put the mall up for sale. The fund manager has owned Fremlin Walk for nearly four years, having bought it for £92m in January 2011.
M&G has been active in the retail sector recently, acquiring Park Trostre retail park in Llanelli, Wales, for £156m, from developer Stadium.
Shopping centre transactions in 2014 are set to smash the UK long-term average of £3.7bn, according to DTZ.
This year is set to surpass the £4.5bn of shopping centre transactions recorded in 2013. Mall investment volumes for the year to date have reached close to £3.5bn across 40 shopping centres.
The figure is likely to increase as the quarter nears completion, but it is already ahead of the £3.1bn transacted across 52 centres in the first three quarters of 2013.
CBRE is advising Legal & General Property.
annabel.dixon@estatesgazette.com
