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A unit of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and UK property firm Grosvenor have collectively sold a 92% stake in the UK’s Liverpool ONE shopping centre to Landsec in a deal valued at £490 million ($622 million).
The UAE sovereign investor was a majority shareholder in the landmark shopping complex, selling a 69% stake to the UK property investment firm, with Grosvenor selling a 23% stake.
While details of the payout to each company have not been revealed, a payment of £35 million to ADIA has been deferred for two years, Landsec confirmed.
The transaction also includes performance-related overage provisions with ADIA, details of which have not been revealed.
The latest deal comes months after it was widely reported that ADIA had pulled out of a £350 million deal to sell its stake in Liverpool ONE to Landsec.
Following this purchase, Landsec said the income return on the initial £455 million outlay is expected to be 7.5%, with the financing for the deal coming from “recycling the proceeds from its £464 million non-core sales earlier in the year.”
The Duke of Westminster’s property firm Grosvenor also said following the deal, it has plans to reinvest the proceeds from the sale.
“Looking ahead, we have ambitious plans to grow and diversify the business and we will reinvest the proceeds from the sale in our core portfolio, including our 10-year programme of investment in London and residential debt business…,” said James Raynor, CEO, Grosvenor.
With this deal, Landsec will now own and manage seven out of 30 major shopping centres in the UK, with this latest acquisition part of the company’s part of its retail growth strategy.
Opened in 2008, Liverpool ONE is counted as a landmark retail destination in the UK.
(Reporting by Bindu Rai, editing by Brinda Darasha)