HSBC Pension Trust has taken a stake in Hercules Property Unit Trust, the UK's biggest owner of retail parks, after a£124 million asset swap.
The bank's pension fund, managed by LaSalle Investment Management, has injected a 50 per cent stake in the Banbury Cross Retail Park into the unit trust, in return for a 50 per cent stake in Hercules' Springvale Retail Park at Orpington, Kent.
At the same time, Hercules has continued its policy of focusing on larger retail parks by selling three of its smaller schemes: one at Oxford and two at Torquay.
Raymond Mould, chairman of Hercules' manager Pillar Property, said the deal could point the way to widening the funds shareholder base.
'We would hope to attract other major funds to effect similar joint ventures,' he said.
Mould confirmed that Fosse Park, the UK's highest-rented retail park, is up for sale. The 416,535 sq ft (38,700 sq m) park on the outskirts of Leicester has been put on the market by Hercules.
The park has a price tag of more than£300 million.
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