Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is preparing to offload one of its first UK real estate purchases, the Whitefriars shopping centre in Canterbury, Kent.
The pension fund has appointed CBRE to market its 50% stake in the 475,000 sq ft open-air shopping centre, seeking bids in excess of £90m.
TH Real Estate, which owns the other 50% interest in the centre, does not plan to sell its stake.
CPPIB head of real estate investments, Europe, Andrea Orlandi, said: “Whitefriars is a high-quality retail asset that we have owned since 2007 and, while it is a strong retail destination, it does not fit within our current core portfolio of real estate assets.
“We are therefore looking to time an exit at this point in the cycle, where there is clear investor interest for this sort of product.”
CPPIB and TH Real Estate bought the shopping centre from its developer, Land Securities, two years after its completion in 2005 for £253m – a net initial yield of 4.1%.
Anchor tenants among its 71 shops include Fenwick, Marks & Spencer and Primark.
