Frasers, the highly acquisitive UK retailer and investor, is lining up the purchase of the Braehead shopping centre near Glasgow for around £220 million, CoStar News understands.
SGS Retail, the lender vehicle which owns the mall, has been preparing to bring the 811,000-square-foot centre to market via JLL. But sources, who declined to be quoted on the record, said the vehicle has opened off-market discussions to sell the centre to Frasers.
SGS took control of four large UK shopping centres following the collapse of Intu in 2020. The portfolio comprises Lakeside in Essex, atria Watford, Victoria Centre in Nottingham and Braehead. Last year OakNorth, the digital bank for entrepreneurs, partnered with Lloyds on a £445 million club loan to SGS Group to refinance the malls.
In 2020, SGS appointed Global Mutual as asset manager alongside AlixPartners in an executive management and board role, and Savills as property manager. Claire Barber joined SGS as its chief executive in September 2024, and it then replaced Global Mutual with Pradera Lateral.
Frasers, the retail group founded by Mike Ashley, has been one of the most active investors in UK real estate in recently years. In October, it completed the acquisition of two shopping centres and a retail park comprising more than a million square feet – Princesshay Shopping Centre in Exeter, Fremlin Walk Shopping Centre in Maidstone and The Olympus Centre in Gloucester.
Braehead joins a number of ongoing major UK shopping centre processes at present including Manchester Arndale, Silverburn in Glasgow and the Lexicon in Bracknell.
All parties declined to comment.