New investors in the fund include Allianz, BNP Paribas Assurance, Clients of CBRE Investors, the Cordares European Retail Property Fund and the Aberdeen Indirect Property Partners, underlining the continued appetite amongst investors for the retail sector of European real estate, and the outlet malls sector in particular.

The Belgian property has been bought from Intervest Retail. The 18,500-sq m site currently comprises forty-eight retail units and geographically sits in a strong catchment area that borders France, Germany and Luxembourg. Like all the fund's other assets, it will now be managed by McArthurGlen and the new operators plan a substantial refurbishment programme which will enhance the retail offer and create a regionally dominant centre drawing on an affluent catchment profile.

Neil Varnham, director at Henderson Global Investors, said: “The fact that the European Outlet Mall sector continues to offer good investment opportunities is underlined by the fact that we have been able to raise a further tranche of €245 million.”

“Outlet Malls, a specialist sub-sector of the retail market, is an area where we have a great deal of experience and skill and where we own some of the best known and largest assets in Europe, such as Serravalle in Italy. We continue to drive turnover growth at our assets, and this, in turn, continues to fuel tenant demand and performance for our investors. Looking forward we have a strong pipeline of acquisitions, which means we will be able to put these funds to work for our investors quickly, working towards our 13% IRR total return target.”

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