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Hercules Mergers Create $2-Bil Retail Parks Giant

LONDON-A series of deals has seen the Hercules Unit Trust become the UK's biggest owner of retail parks with a $2 Billion portfolio. The fund now includes Fosse Park in Leicester, the country's highest-rented retail park.

By Graham Parker | Updated on December 07, 2001

LONDON-Pillar Property and Equitable Life have restructured and extended their Hercules Unit Trust venture, which specialises in retail park investments. Three simultaneous transactions have almost doubled the size of the fund and it now owns 28 parks across the UK worth £1.5 billion ($2.1 billion).

Pillar has sold three more retail parks–the 575,000-sf Fort Kinnaird in Edinburgh; the 313,000-sf Deepdale park in Preston and the 297,00-sf Broughton park at Chester–into Hercules for £444.1 million ($630 million). The deal raises Pillar £87.6 million ($124 million) in cash.

At the same time the Retail Park Unit Trust, a similar venture in which Pillar had a one-third stake whose sole asset was the 416,000-sf Fosse park at Leicester, has merged with Hercules. Pillar has raised a further £93.9 million ($133 million) from the sale of its stake. Fosse park is the highest-rented retail park in the UK, with prime space fetching £70 ($100) per sf.

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