Ex-Meadowhall owner British Land uses sale to invest £240m in retail park purchases

British Land said at the time it intended to build up its existing retail park portfolio on the grounds that such sites are “the preferred format for a wide range of customers due to the format's affordability, convenience, and omni-channel compatibility”.

It has now confirmed new investments have been made in six retail park sites.

British Land has acquired the Orchard Centre in Didcot and Cyfarthfa Shopping Park in Merthyr Tydfil acquired from Brookfield.

It has also bought Enham Arch Retail Park in Andover, Queen’s Drive Retail Park in Kilmarnock and St David’s Retail Park in Bangor from M7 Real Estate.

The company has also acquired Southampton Road Retail Park in Salisbury and British Land has taken a remaining 12.5 per cent interest in New Mersey Retail Park in Speke.

Simon Carter, Chief Executive of British Land, said: “We are seeing good opportunities to allocate capital into retail parks, and have swiftly delivered our plan to fully offset the earnings dilution from the £360m Meadowhall disposal with the acquisition of £240m of high quality retail parks at attractive yields.

"With low capex requirements, parks offer attractive cash returns and, with 99 per cent occupancy, our portfolio is delivering strong rental growth.”

A company spokesperson said: “These acquisitions will increase FY26 earnings per share by 0.7p, fully offsetting the dilution from the Meadowhall disposal.

"These six high quality retail parks acquired since April, have a weighted average unexpired lease term of five years, and are let to successful multi-channel and essential retailers with strong covenants.”

British Land had owned Meadowhall since 1999, when it paid more than £1bn for the retail destination.

Back in 2012, Norges Bank Investment Management purchased a 50 per cent stake in Meadowhall at a point when the centre was valued at £1.4bn.

Norges, which was set up to manage revenue from Norway’s oil and gas resources and has over £1,100bn of funds under management, still sees potential in Meadowhall despite the centre’s falling value in recent years and outstanding debts of over £426m.

Earlier this year, the fund’s chief investment officer described Meadowhall as a “dominant super regional shopping centre with strong occupier fundamentals”, while Head of UK Real Estate Jayesh Patel indicated that Norges believes the 1.4m sq ft shopping centre has a bright future. “Despite being out of favour, we remain confident in the prime shopping centre sector, where rents and yields have rebased significantly,” Patel said.