Royal Bank of Scotland is continuing its Ulster Bank deleveraging by lining up the potential sale of a £725m shopping centre portfolio.
The malls
• Fosse Park, Leicester
• Foyleside, Londonderry, Northern Ireland
• Forestside, Belfast, Northern Ireland
• Priory Meadow, Hastings, East Sussex
• Palace Exchange, Enfield, north London
• Abbeycentre, Newtonabbey, Belfast
• The Avenue, Newton Mearns, Glasgow
• Marshes, Dundalk, Ireland
The bank has appointed Savills to advise on the sale of the 2.4m sq ft portfolio, which is owned by Ken Cheevers’ and John McGukian’s AFG Properties.
It was originally going to include the Ulster Bank debts in its €715m Project Button commercial property loan portfolio, which is currently up for sale, before it decided on a sales process for the hard assets.
RBS aims to run down around £96bn of Ulster loans by 2016. The borrowers have in the past attempted to sell parts of the portfolio including the largest asset, Fosse Park.
In mid-2010, the 500,000 sq ft Leicester park was put on the market for £360m – a 5.3% yield. It is expected to be sold separately from the other seven assets, which will most likely be offered for sale as a portfolio. Around £300m is expected to be sought for Fosse.
The investors are also attempting to find an equity backer to enable a refinancing or fund a discounted loan buyout of the £550m loan behind four of the assets owned by their Foyleside vehicle (1 March, p39).
bridget.o’connell@estatesgazette.com
