Mike Ashley emerges as frontrunner for Meadowhall purchase
Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group has emerged as a frontrunner to purchase Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield.
The retail group is one of a number of parties interested in a purchase, The Times has reported, after the 1.5m sq ft shopping mall was put on the market by British Land and Norges Bank in September with an asking price of £750m.
Any potential buyer would have to take on a debt of £450m which is secured against the centre, which had struggled in the run-up to and aftermath of the pandemic. The cost of this debt means that British Land and Norges had received no income from the scheme for three years.
Should Frasers Group acquire the centre, Meadowhall would be added to the group’s growing list of retail assets, which includes the likes of the Overgate shopping centre in Dundee and Luton’s The Mall, which were both acquired in March 2023.
The group also purchased Junction 32 in Castleford in November.