London property firm Landsec, which formerly owned St John’s shopping centre, buys majority stake in Liverpool ONE for £490m. Tony McDonough reports
Landsec has completed its £490m purchase of a majority stake in retail and leisure complex Liverpool ONE.
On Tuesday it was announced Landsec, which which formerly owned St John’s shopping centre in Liverpool, has acquired Abu Dhabi Investment Authority’s 69% stake and Grosvenor 23% share of the 1.6m sq ft estate.
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority will receive £455m, representing a net initial yield of 7.5%. Net initial yield is the annual rental income at the time of the sale expressed as a percentage of the capital value. The remaining £35m is deferred for two years.
Mark Allan, chief executive at Landsec, said: The top 1% of the UK’s shopping destinations provide brands with access to 30% of all in-store retail spend, which is why we continue to see brands focus on fewer, but bigger and better stores in the best locations.
“As such I am delighted that we have added another top-ten centre with a highly attractive return profile – meaning our unique portfolio now includes seven of the top 30 centres in the UK.
““Liverpool ONE already has a great line-up of brands in a thriving location and we look forward to building on this with our leading operating platform to further add to its exciting growth story.”
This is not London-based Landsec’s first foray into Liverpool. It owned St Johns shopping centre for a number of years before selling it to nfraRed Capital Partners for £76.5m in 2012.
Liverpool ONE was built and opened by Grosvenor in 2008 at a cost of £1bn. In September 2023 Grosvenor admitted to LBN that it had taken a huge financial hit on the £1bn development when it opened in 2008 due to the financial crisis at the time.
Mark Preston, chief executive of Grosvenor, said: “We were eager to make sure we opened as early as possible during that Capital of Culture year, which is why we had the two-stage opening.
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“By then the financial crisis was getting into full swing and there were still lots of retail lettings we needed to complete. And, indeed, we didn’t complete a lot of those until later in the following year.
“There were also still negotiations over compulsory purchase orders so there were an awful lot of things going on at that time.