One of the most active buyers of UK retail in recent years has bought a giant Scottish shopping centre out of administration.

Sheet Anchor Evolve, part of property investment group M Core, has acquired the 1M SF East Kilbride Shopping Centre in Scotland for about £20M, bringing the shopping centre under new ownership after almost four years in administration.

Orion Capital bought the centre in 2014 for £180M, but it went into administration in 2022.

The administration process also resulted in a restructuring of the wider site. Centre West, a distinct part of the complex, was transferred to South Lanarkshire Council in December 2025, with the council planning to oversee its redevelopment.

The centre has more than 100 occupiers, including Primark, Matalan, Boots, Sports Direct, JD Sports, Odeon Luxe, PureGym, Home Bargains, Poundland and Nando’s.

“East Kilbride is a significant acquisition for M Core and further strengthens our presence in Scotland," M Core Chief Investment Officer-Europe Sebastian Macdonald-Hall said in a statement. "It is a substantial, well-established destination with a strong catchment, good connectivity and strong underlying fundamentals.”

M Core said it sees opportunities to build on the existing offer. The acquisition is its third major Scottish shopping centre investment in three years, following its purchase of The Centre, Livingston and Princes Square in Glasgow.

The group has been one of the most active buyers of UK retail property in recent years, targeting value-add assets.

Its wider UK acquisitions this year have included Eldon Garden in Newcastle and Northfield Shopping Centre in Birmingham, while Sheet Anchor Evolve has also continued to add smaller retail assets, including Dukes Walk Shopping Centre in Waterlooville.

The Centre, Livingston is another roughly 1M SF retail and leisure destination, and M Core acquired it in 2023 in a joint deal involving LCP and Evolve Estates. M Core followed that acquisition with the purchase of the 118,600 SF Princes Square on Glasgow’s Buchanan Street in early 2024.

East Kilbride represents a considerably larger repositioning, and Interpath said the administrator had worked with Scoop Asset Management and a team of architects and surveyors to produce a redevelopment master plan prior to the sale.