Trafford Centre goes up for sale

The popular shopping destination, which draws 30 million visitors every year, is to be auctioned.

Advisors have now been appointed to market the Trafford Centre for sale.

PJT Partners, acting as M&A advisor, and CBRE, acting as commercial agent, will be advising on a sales process.

A spokesman for the joint administrators of Intu Properties plc said today “All parties are working constructively together to maximise value for this highly attractive asset.”

Intu Properties plc owns and operates 17 shopping centres across the UK including Lakeside, Merry Hill and MetroCentre, in addition to a shopping centre and development site in Spain.

It directly employs around 2,373 people, including 370 at its head office in London, and each year welcomes around 400 million visitors to its sites.

Each of the shopping centres is owned individually by special purpose vehicles (“Propcos”) which are outside of any insolvency process and continue to trade as normal under the control of their directors.

It is expected an asset of the Trafford Centre's quality will attract considerable interest from the UK and international investment community.

Jim Tucker, David Pike and Mike Pink from KPMG’s Restructuring practice have been appointed joint administrators to Intu Properties plc in addition to eight Topco subsidiaries.