The four new retail parks are: the Octagon retail park in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire; the Lakeside Extra retail park in Thurrock, Essex; the Euro retail park in Ipswich, Suffolk and the Cockhedge shopping park in Warrington, Cheshire. The four provide a combined floorspace of 760,000 sf.

The Junction Chief Executive Andrew Lewis-Pratt, said: 'Our strategy of expanding our existing portfolio of large scale parks over 120,000 sf is now well under way. The sites have the potential to add destination stores to become the dominant retail parks in their catchment areas.'

The Junction fund was formed early in 2002 with an initial11 retail parks worth £336 million ($487 million). The new purchases increase the portfolio to 15 parks and £481 million ($654 million). And over the next three years the managers aim to create a portfolio of 30 parks across the UK. Work is already under way on the redevelopment and re-branding of the first parks at East London and Hull, and by Autumn 2002 they will begin trading as The Junction.