Adhan Group pays £40m for Capital & Regional’s Blackburn mall

Adhan Group of Companies has bought The Mall in Blackburn, Lancashire, from Capital & Regional for £40m in cash. The deal marks a next step in the Blackburn-based group’s ambitious plan to build up a £1bn portfolio of retail property by 2023. The price paid for the 600,000 sq ft shopping centre represents a slight premium to the December 2021 valuation of £38.2m. Completion of the sale, which is subject to local authority freeholder consent, is expected to take place around the end of June 2022. Last year, Adhan announced plans to amass a £1bn portfolio of retail properties by 2023, after buying the 270,000 sq ft St George’s shopping centre in Preston for an undisclosed sum. The company was founded by chief executive Salim Patel and his family in 2003. The Mall, Blackburn contributed approximately £3.7m to Capital & Regional’s net rental income. The proceeds will be used to repay debt secured on the property as part of The Mall loan facility, reducing the group’s LTV by around 600 basis points. Capital & Regional chief executive Lawrence Hutchings said: “The sale of The Mall, Blackburn at a premium to its December 2021 valuation provides further evidence of the stabilisation of asset values as well as renewed investor confidence in the sector and allows us to make another material reduction to group leverage.” Along with receipts from the anticipated sale of its Walthamstow residential site and the discounted purchase of debt on Hemel Hempstead, the group expects its LTV to fall from 49% to 41%. Hutchings added: “These ongoing improvements give Capital & Regional a solid platform from which to look to continue to execute our strategy for growth and support our plans for the resumption of dividend payments in the second half of the year.” View recent retail lettings in Blackburn >> To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews