Bank of Ireland Private Banking acquires 50% interest in London shopping park

Bank of Ireland Private Banking today (Friday 29th October) announced that it has acquired a 50% interest in Gallions Reach Shopping Park for 78.8m Pounds Stg (Euro116m) on behalf of a number of its private clients.

Gallions Reach Shopping Park, which opened in 2003, is located at Beckton in East London, close to London City Airport and comprises 32 units plus 2 food units and 209,000 sq.ft. of shopping space. Tenants include well-known retailers such as Next, Boots, JD Sports, WH Smith and Borders. The Park boasts a catchment area of circa 800,000 people within a 20-minute drive.

The vendor, Pillar Property plc, will continue to have an interest in the Park through its shareholding in the Hercules Unit Trust, which owns the other 50% of Gallions Reach, and through its ongoing role as asset manager of the Park. Hercules is the largest specialist owner of retail and shopping parks in the UK with a portfolio of 2.3bn Pounds Stg, comprising 5.5m sq.ft. of retail space in 23 retail and shopping parks, including 6 of the top 20* shopping parks in the UK.
Source: FPD Savills Guide to Retail and Leisure parks 2003.

Commenting on the acquisition, Peter Collins, Director, Bank of Ireland Private Banking, said; "Shopping parks, as a distinct asset class, have been one of the best performing sectors of the UK property market in recent years, a trend we believe is set to continue. As a sub-sector of the retail, the out of town market has seen total ungeared returns reach 23.3% in the year to September 2004 (source IPD). Until now, shopping parks have been the preserve of a small number of UK institutions and private clients have found it extremely difficult to buy quality assets in this area. The purchase of a 50% stake in Gallions Reach not only gives our clients access to this sector, but also partners them with Hercules whom we rate as the leading specialist manager of shopping park assets in the UK market."

"The only shopping park within the M25, Gallions Reach has excellent long-term potential. We believe that this type of joint venture transaction, where private investors partner with active asset managers, is one of the ways investors can look to generate better long-term returns than are otherwise available from more standard property investment structures," Peter Collins added.

CB Richard Ellis Gunne advised Bank of Ireland Private Banking on the transaction. Caroline McCarthy of CBREG commented, "The deal is a new departure for Irish investors in the UK and we would expect to see much more interest in both out-of-town retail and joint venture type structures in the coming years."

Ends

For further information contact:
Peter Collins on (01) 6378687
or
Kevin Quinn on (01) 637 8694.

Anne Mathews,
Group Corporate Communications
on (01) 604 3836 or 087 246 0358