British Land Co. and its partner Sainsbury have sold 12 Superstores properties to U.S.-based Realty Income Corp. for £429 million ($556.9 million).
This marks Realty Income Corp.’s first international real estate acquisition.
The deal, expected to be completed in May, will reduce British Land’s Superstores exposure to around 1.3 percent of its portfolio, with six standalone stores remaining.
Approximately 48 percent of British Land’s portfolio is invested in retail. The sale is part of British Land’s efforts of decreasing its retail exposure to 30 percent to 35 percent. The company has already exchanged on or completed the sale of nearly £1 billion ($1.3 billion) of retail assets since April last year.
In November 2018, British Land announced the shift and said it would take more than five years as the firm plans to move toward ownership of housing and campus-style office space. The firm stated its retail portfolio generated a net loss of £42 m
