Falkirk centre part of £140m sale deal

THE Howgate shopping centre in Falkirk has been sold as part of a portfolio of four properties for £135.9 million. Land giant Capital & Regional offloaded the shopping centres to Rockspring Investment Managers.

The portfolio, held by The Mall Fund, includes the Eastgate Shopping Centre in Gloucester, the Marlands Shopping Centre in Southampton and the Liberty Shopping Centre in Romford.

The fund, set up by Capital & Regional and Aviva Investors in 2002, sold the shopping centres as part of its drive to cut debt.

The properties were valued at 128.1m at the end of June, reflecting a 6 per cent uplift in the sale price.

Capital & Regional and Aviva last month agreed to restructure 1 billion of loans held by The Mall Fund, aiming to cut the fund's loan-to-value ratio from 80 per cent to 65 per cent in 2014.

Rockspring, led by executive chairman Richard Plummer, has teamed up with former Mall fund director John Wood, who has formed a new company called The Other Retail Group to manage the schemes. Capital & Regional has an interest of 16.7 per cent in The Mall Fund.

Other investors in The Mall Fund include the Prudential, Isis Property Asset Management, ING Real Estate, Scottish Widows, Hermes Real Estate, F&C Asset Management, Arlington Property Investors, Sparinvest and pension fund APG.

CB Richard Ellis advised The Mall Fund and Kitchen La Frenais Morgan advised Rockspring.