Kildare snaps up shopping centres for €170m

Kildare Partners, which is backed by billionaire Ellis Short, has bought two of the biggest shopping centres in the North for £135 million (€170 million).

The two shopping centres are Foyleside in Derry, a 354,000sq ft facility, and Forestside in south Belfast, which is 317,000sq ft.

The two centres have an annual rent roll of £6.4 million and £4.7 million per annum respectively. Between them the two centres have a footfall of 14.8 million people a year.

The centres were formerly owned by former UTV chairman John B McGuckian and Ken Cheevers, who owns the McLaughlin & Harvey building firm. Both businessmen and the existing management team of the two centres will continue to be involved in operating them.

Savills put the centres on the market as part of a larger £700 million portfolio of properties which were all put on the market by Royal Bank of Scotland.

Club owner

Mr Short is an Irish-American businessman who is best known as the owner of Sunderland football club. His private equity firm, Kildare Partners, recently raised a $2 billion fund to invest in

Europe

.

Emer Finnan, a former finance director with EBS, is partner and senior managing director with Kildare who is responsible for Ireland.

Kildare has been an active bidder in the Irish market with its deals including acquiring about €100 million of loans associated with companies owned by Cork developer Michael O’Flynn in March.