Ingka Centres, the property division of Ikea Group, which is the world’s biggest furniture retailer, bought and reinvented a massive mall in Hammersmith’s High Street in west London for £170m ($222 million). The deal marks the start of IKEA’s transformation into the UK market, with a full push into the traditional high street. It is also as the Ingka Center’s debut in the UK market and its first shopping mall acquisition through the year.
IKEA will open a new boutique store in Kings Mall with 27,000 square meters, the first project of the group’s multi-billion euro transformation strategy. The sale was made by a UK property fund run by Schroders Asset Management, which bought the site and surrounding office buildings for $153 million in 2015.
