UK CPT offloads shopping centres to Shropshire Council

Guernsey-based investment firm UK Commercial Property Trust has completed the sale of its three retail centres in Shrewsbury town centre to Shropshire Council for roughly £51m, representing a small premium to book value.

UK CPM, which was advised by Standard Life Investments, completed the sale on Wednesday after having initially exchanged contracts in December.

The Charles Darwin, Pride Hill and Riverside shopping centres, all located in the heart of Shrewsbury's town centre, were made up of around 428,400 square feet of retail and leisure space in total.

Will Fulton, fund manager at Standard Life Investments, said, "The sale of these three centres is in line with our previously stated strategy of reducing our portfolio's weighting towards retail. Furthermore, the sale provides us with additional financial resources which we intend to recycle into other investment opportunities that fit with the company's investment strategy."

"We have been discussing long-term options for these centres with Shropshire Council for a while which ultimately led to negotiations around the Council acquiring them and managing them going forward. We believe that this is a very satisfactory outcome for both parties and for the future of the centres," he added.

As of 1420 GMT, shares had retreated 0.44% to 89.60p.