Orion snaps up £90m Scottish shopping center

The London-based private equity real estate firm has bought the fully-leased Kingsgate Shopping Centre, located in East Kilbride, 10km south of Glasgow, from Aviva Life & Pensions. 

Orion Capital Managers has acquired the Kingsgate Shopping Centre in East Kilbride, Scotland, for a figure understood to be in the region of £90 million ($110 million; €105 million) on behalf of its fourth pan-European real estate fund.

The private equity real estate firm bought the 266,000 square foot retail and leisure asset from UK pension fund Aviva Life & Pensions using capital from its €1.3 billion opportunity vehicle, Orion European Real Estate Fund IV.

The property is 100 percent leased to 12 tenants, including Sainsbury’s, M&S, Homebase, Next and Nike, and its current net operating income is approximately £6.6 million per annum. Kingsgate also benefits from a footfall of approximately 7.2 million visitors per annum and is one of the most successful retail park trading locations in Scotland.

Aref Lahham, managing director of Orion, said: “This acquisition offers asset management scope at tenant lease expiry and the opportunity to enhance the tenant mix in line with current consumer expectations for food and fashion offers. It will build on the momentum created by recent lettings to Nike, M&S and Next.”

Orion hit the fundraising trail for its fourth pan-European vehicle in March 2012. By September 2013, the firm had garnered around €1.3 billion in capital commitments, subsequently hitting its target.

Since then the firm has acquired a variety of assets on behalf of Fund IV, though the majority have been shopping centers in European cities such as Paris, Rome and Bologna. The predecessor vehicle attracted €1.28 billion in 2009.

Orion was advised by Paradigm while Aviva was instructed by Wilkinson Williams.