THE Mill Gate shopping centre has changed hands for £52 million — with the new owners promising further investment to benefit retailers and customers.

InfraRed Capital Partners has exchanged contracts to acquire the shopping centre from SWIP, now part of Aberdeen Asset Manage-ment.

Mill Gate, described by the new owners as the “core of the commercial hub” of the town adjacent to Bury Market and the Metrolink, comprises more than 400,000 sq ft of covered lettable space across 140 shop units, along with one of the main car parks in Bury town centre.

Tenants include BHS, Boots, New Look, Poundland, The Body Shop, Waterstones, Poundworld and Santander.

InfraRed has been a long-standing investor in UK shopping centres, having managed three specialist shopping centres between 1998 and 2006.

In 2011, it re-entered the UK shopping centre market after an absence of five years and has since acquired six shopping centres for more than £350 million.

The acquisitions started with The Galleries in Bristol, followed by Castle Mall in Norwich, St Johns and Clayton Square in Liverpool, and Eastgate in Basildon earlier this year.

InfraRed says it invests heavily in its assets and the combined capital expend-iture budget across its six UK shopping centres exceeds £50 million.

InfraRed’s fund manager Christopher Huxtable said: “This investment follows our strategy of acquiring dominant town centre assets in top 100 UK retail destinations that benefit from a combination of high footfall, affordable rents and high potential for value addition.

“The scheme provides the only covered retail environment in the vicinity. We will make further investment into the asset.”

Peter Webb, senior investment manager of property at Aberdeen Asset Management, said it was keen to “take advantage of a strong market.”