The majority of the Gemini portfolio, previously owned by Glenn Maud’s Propinvest, has been put up for sale for £300m.
Administrators at Deloitte, together with CBRE Loan Servicing, have instructed CBRE to begin marketing most of the remaining properties, following a handful of individual sales over the past two years.
The sale is the latest twist in a nine-year saga. The portfolio once totalled 36 assets and was valued at £1.2bn in 2006. It crashed to less than half the value of the £918.9m Barclays Capital loan against which it was secured by 2012.
Deloitte was appointed by CBRE Loan Servicing when it called in the loan secured against Gemini in 2012, in one of the most high-profile administrations of the recession.
After the administrators were appointed, the outstanding loan balance, due in July 2016, stood at £850m. The valuation of the portfolio prior to the securitisation of the loan is now the subject of a high-profile legal case.
Four shopping centres make up roughly 50% by value of the remaining portfolio, the largest of which is Martineau Place in Birmingham, which was valued at £228.5m in 2006.
Also included are the Galleries and MarketGate shopping centres in Wigan, Greater Manchester; Springfields retail park in Stoke, Staffordshire; and the Prescot Centre on Merseyside.
Several properties in the original portfolio have already been sold, and it has yet to be determined whether the latest sale will include all of the remaining assets.
Assets already sold include 20 Farringdon Street, EC4; the Headrow Centre in Leeds; Northfield shopping centre in Birmingham; and an industrial asset in Barking, east London.
Vale Retail was appointed to manage the English retail assets, while Valad Europe took on the office and industrial elements. Cogent Property Solutions took on most of the Scottish assets.
