Hammerson buys flagship shopping centre with 20 casual dining brands: Property firm Hammerson has exchanged contracts with Birmingham City Council to acquire the new Grand Central shopping centre in Birmingham for £335 million. In addition, Hammerson is in advanced discussions with an existing joint venture partner on other assets about entering into a 50:50 joint venture for the future ownership of Grand Central. Grand Central, which opened in September 2015, provides 435,000 square foot of high-quality prime retail space, anchored by a 250,000 square foot John Lewis department store. It was developed by Network Rail and Birmingham City Council as part of the £750 million New Street Station regeneration project. A significant share of space is dedicated to restaurants and cafés across 20 casual dining brands including Carluccio’s, Yo Sushi, Pho, Ed’s Easy Diner, Caffe Concerto, Giraffe, Handmade Burger Co and Tapas Revolution, many opening in Birmingham for the first time. There are over a dozen pop-up units on short term leases as well as an additional income stream from the ‘Eyes’ – large digital advertising screens on the exterior of the scheme. The centre sits above redeveloped New Street Station which with Grand Central now makes up a world-class ‘gateway’ to the heart of the city and is the busiest train station outside of London, expected to see footfall of over 55 million passengers per annum. A new car park at the centre adds over 400 car park spaces to the existing 11,000 provided within central Birmingham. The retail is close to fully let (96% occupancy) with topped-up annual net rental income of £13.9 million. The current weighted average unexpired lease term to break is 10.4 years. Based on the price paid for the retail space the acquisition represents a net initial yield of 4.0%, an equivalent yield of 4.7% and a reversionary yield of 4.9%. David Atkins, chief executive of Hammerson, said: “The acquisition of Grand Central, a highly-prized trophy asset in the UK’s second city, is fully aligned with Hammerson’s strategy of owning top-performing retail destinations in prime locations, as demonstrated by our recent transactions in Ireland and growing exposure to European Premium Outlets. By deploying our expertise from Bullring, as well as other shopping centres around the UK, Hammerson is well placed to further enhance the consumer offer in Birmingham and achieve high returns through skilful management of Grand Central. We are strong supporters of the future of Birmingham and this acquisition provides us with additional exposure to the city’s fast growing economy.”

Shepherd Neame adds two non-executive directors: Shepherd Neame has added two non-executive directors to its board. Hilary Riva OBE, 58, will join the board in April 2016. Riva has enjoyed a successful career in fashion retailing with various senior roles in the Arcadia group followed by her jointly leading the buyout of Principles, Hawkshead, Warehouse and Racing Green as managing director of Rubicon Retail. Following the sale of Rubicon, she was chief executive of the British Fashion Council from 2005 to 2009. She is also a current non-executive director at Shaftesbury, the FSTE 250 property company, at ASOS, the largest online fashion retailer, and at London and Partners, the official promotional company for London. Richard Oldfield, 60, will join the board in June 2016. Oldfield is executive chairman of Oldfield Partners, an investment management firm managing listed equities funds. He is also a director of Witan Investment Trust and a trustee of the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity and the Clore Duffield Foundation. Previously he was a director of Mercury Asset Management. Oliver Barnes, who has served as a non-executive director since 2005 will step down from the board in July 2016 and James Leigh-Pemberton CVO, who has served as a non-executive director since 2004 will step down from the board in September 2016. Chairman Miles Templeman said: “We are delighted to welcome Hilary and Richard to the board. They are both highly capable individuals who enjoy very distinguished careers in their chosen fields and will no doubt make a great contribution to the continued success and development of Shepherd Neame. I would like to take this opportunity to thank James and Oliver for their very significant individual contributions to the business. They have helped to steer the company through some challenging times for the industry over the past ten years, and played a big part in helping the company achieve the strong position we are in today.”