M&G Real Estate is buying The Crown Estate’s 50% stake in Fort Kinnaird retail and leisure centre on the east side of Edinburgh for £167.25 million.

M&G Real Estate will enter into a joint venture with Hercules Unit Trust (HUT) for Fort Kinnaird.

British Land owns 78% of HUT and is the property advisor of the 560,000 sq ft Fort Kinnaird.

Fort Kinnaird has an estimated annual footfall of 14 million.

John Duxbury, ‎head of retail at M&G Real Estate, said: “Our partnership at Fort Kinnaird underlines our commitment to prime retail, which continues to prove resilient to competition from e-commerce and reflects our strategy of investing in secure assets with long term prospects for income and capital appreciation.

“We are very pleased to partner with HUT and British Land, as we continue to align our investments with other experts in their field.”

Charles Maudsley, head of retail, leisure & residential, British Land added: “We have thoroughly enjoyed partnering with The Crown Estate and together have made Fort Kinnaird a great place for people in Edinburgh to shop, be entertained, dine out and relax.

“Having secured such fantastic retail and leisure brands for the centre, Fort Kinnaird has an exciting future and we’re delighted that M&G Real Estate will be joining us to further evolve the centre.”

CBRE and Griffiths Eccles advised The Crown Estate and Knight Frank represented M&G Real Estate.