Hammerson sells stake in shopping mall to South Korea's NPS

Property developer Hammerson today sold a 51% stake in a French shopping mall to Gatwick airport's part-owner, the South Korean National Pension Service, for around 350 billion won.

The deal is the latest addition to NPS's growing investments in overseas property assets which include a $767 million purchase of Sony Center in Berlin, a $160 million buy of Gatwick airport in London and a $1.3 billion purchase of HSBC's European headquarters in Canary Wharf.

NPS, the world's fifth-biggest pension fund, is considering buying additional stakes in the O'Parinor mall near Paris, a spokeswoman in the fund said.

The shopping centre, which has more than 90,000 square metres (968,800 sq ft) of space, was redeveloped in 2008 and houses 220 stores including retailer Carrefour, H&M, Zara, and Toys 'R' Us, according to Hammerson.

NPS, which manages nearly 300 trillion won in assets, aims to boost investments in assets such as real estate, infrastructure and private equity funds to 6.4 percent this year from 4.5 percent as of end-November, and has been building a global presence in the past year.