History
The Company was established by Sir Donald Gordon in 1980 under the name of Transatlantic Insurance Holdings plc as an offshoot Liberty Life Association of Africa, a business he had founded in 1957. The Company developed into a leading investor in life assurance businesses in the 1980s only divested its remaining life assurance interests (a 29% holding in Sun Life) in 1991. In 1992 it merged with Capital & Counties, a leading shopping centre developer, so securing itself a listing on the London Stock Exchange. It changed its name to Liberty International in 1996 and, after demerging Capital & Counties Properties in 2010, renamed itself Capital Shopping Centres Group.
In 2011, CSC purchased the Trafford Centre undertaking £750 million of debt from owners The Peel Group and offered a 20% stake in CSC to Peel chairman John Whittaker. The 20% stake in CSC was worth approximately £700m at the time, thus valuing the Trafford Centre at approximately £1.65 billion. Whittaker continued to purchase shares after the takeover and became the largest single shareholder in 2012 with a stake of 24.63%.
In November 2011, it was announced that CSC would be purchasing The Westfield Group's 75% stake in Westfield Broadmarsh, in Nottingham.
Read more about this topic: Capital Shopping Centres
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