Meadowhall: World's largest wealth fund set to take control of £750m mega-mall

Norway’s Norges, worth £1.3 trillion, is in advanced talks to buy out British Land’s 50 per cent share of the Sheffield shopping centre, the Sunday Times reports.

The two organisations have been co-owners since 2012 when Norges bought 50 per cent in a deal that valued Meadowhall at just over £1.5 billion. 

The proposed deal would value it at £725m, a drop of £475m.

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The Times reported in September that British Land was preparing to sell up.

In January it said Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group was considering a bid, among a “handful of parties” to have registered an interest.

Now, sources close to the negotiations say that while a deal between Norges and British Land is the likely outcome, talks are continuing with other prospective buyers.

Meadowhall was built on the site of the former Hadfields' East Hecla steelworks and opened in 1990, when it was the UK’s second biggest shopping complex.

It was developed by the South Yorkshire duo Eddie Healey and Paul Sykes, who sold the complex to British Land in 1999, reportedly pocketing £700m in profit and securing both men a place in Yorkshire’s ‘rich list’ for years.