Hammerson sells £1.5bn stake in Bicester Village owner to private equity firm

Property company will use some of proceeds with LVMH-backed investor L Catterton to pay down debt

The property firm Hammerson has sold its stake in the group that controls Bicester Village, the cut-price designer goods shopping centre in Oxfordshire, to the luxury market investor L Catterton in a 1.5bn deal.

Hammerson said it would raise 600m in cash proceeds from the sale of its near-40% stake in Value Retail, which also owns nine luxury shopping destinations near Barcelona, Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, Paris, Madrid, Milan and Munich. The property company plans to use the cash to pay down debt, invest in its other centres and return 140m to shareholders.