Landsec: Property giant ups stake in Bluewater shopping centre to two thirds

Property giant Landsec has acquired an additional 17.5 per cent stake in Bluewater, the out of town shopping centre in Kent, taking its overall ownership to over 65 per cent.

The £120m move comes exactly a decade after the real estate firm first announced a stake in the destination.

In June 2014, it bought a 30 per cent stake in the shopping centre. Then in December 2021, it snapped up a further 25 per cent for £172m.

Based on the income Landsec’s existing investment in Bluewater generated over the year to March 2024, the acquisition should increase Landsec’s net rental income from Bluewater by £10.3m per year, the firm said.

Bruce Findlay, managing director of retail at Landsec, said: “This transaction underscores our ability to continue to create value through prime investments in scarce, major retail destinations with attractive return profiles. Bluewater is one of the UK’s top retail destinations and a key part of our strategy to further build our relationships with key brands.”

The deal is another sign of Landsec’s confidence in the bricks and mortar retail sector, which it has continued to back with a focus on prime, despite the rise of online shopping.

The FTSE 100 company, which in addition to its retail offering also has a large office and leisure portfolios, has struggled to recover from the consecutive blows of the pandemic and higher rate environment.

In 2020, the firm’s share price nearly halved in the space of less than a month as Coronavirus brought into question people’s need for offices or physical retail spaces.

Since then its shares have fluctuated around the 600p mark, as higher rates poured cold water on much of the expected recovery from the pandemic, keeping the valuation firm’s properties lower.

Landsec bought the stake in Bluewater from GIC, the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund.