Braehead is Scotland’s most popular retail and leisure destination, with 1.1m sq ft of retail, leisure and hospitality space. The shopping centre is being offered for sale in off-market negotiations with an asking price around £220 million.

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group is understood to be interested in purchasing Braehead Shopping Centre. Real estate industry publication Green Street News reports that Braehead “is being offered to investors off-market”. The retail local contains over 100 stores. Frasers Group manages brands including Sports Direct, House of Fraser and Flannels.

The site is owned by SGS Group after Intu Properties plc entered administration in June 2020. Last year, SGS completed a refinancing of its four properties – Braehead, Lakeside in Essex, Atria in Watford and Victoria Centre in Nottingham. OakNorth contracted with Lloyds to provide a £445 million club loan to the SGS Group for the deal.

Jaap Tonckens, non-executive chairman of SGS Group, said at the time: “These leading retail and leisure assets have gone from strength to strength over the past four years. The overwhelming support for the recapitalisation reflects this very strong performance and investor confidence in prime shopping centres.

“We were impressed by OakNorth’s expert knowledge of the UK’s commercial real estate sector throughout the entire transaction. I look forward to being a part of the next phase of the SGS journey to build upon the achievements to date.”

Max Saidman, Director of Debt Finance at OakNorth, added: “This transaction represented OakNorth with an attractive opportunity to back four significant and highly successful retail assets.

“All four sites have seen robust year-on-year growth to footfall and occupancy rates, reflecting the positive consumer demand for shopping centres in the South East, Midlands, and Scotland.

“Furthermore, with UK consumer confidence rising to its highest level in more than two years earlier this year, we see the attractiveness of these sites getting stronger moving forward.”

Anchor stores at Braehead include Marks and Spencer, Primark, Next, River Island and TK Maxx. Braehead is also home to food and drink brands including Five Guys, Prezzo, Yo Sushi, Popeye’s, Nando’s and Filling Station. The complex features the Braehead Arena, a 4,000 capacity venue that’s home to the Glasgow Clan ice hockey team, alongside XSite Braehead, an indoor leisure complex.