Hammerson in talks to sell stake in owner of Bicester Village

British shopping malls giant Hamerson is reportedly in talks to imminently offload its 40% holding in Value Retail, the owner of the tourist magnet Bicester Village outlet centre.

Hammerson is the largest shopping centre owner in the UK (its flagship properties include the Bullring and Brent Cross malls) and has been offloading properties in recent periods under shareholder pressure.

It’s been known for a while that it was looking to sell its stake in Value Retail, but those shareholders are likely to be pleased that a sale might be happening sooner rather than later. 

Its holding has an estimated value of £1.2 billion, although there’s no guarantee it could achieve that price and a Sky News report said a sale may be around the £1 billion level. It didn’t say who the company is talking to about buying it.

Sky didn’t give a specific source for its information but Hammerson did issue a statement to the news website saying: “Value Retail is an attractive portfolio but, as we previously stated, it’s not part of our core proposition to have an investment in a platform. We are not forced sellers and will look to maximise our options at the right time.”

Of course, Value Retail isn’t only about Bicester Village and actually owns 11 other outlets in Europe and China. But the importance of Bicester can be seen in that some of them operate under that name and the entire dozen are grouped under the banner The Bicester Collection. The company is also developing new centres with Belmont Park Village due to open next summer in New York.

A major shareholder in Value Retail is Scott Malkin, the property entrepreneur who founded the company.