Morley sells 50% share of Crown Point Shopping Park to The Crown Estate for £67.7 million

Morley¹, Aviva's UK-based asset management business, and The Crown Estate today announce they have agreed the sale of 50% of Morley's share of the Crown Point Shopping Park to The Crown Estate for £67.7 million.

Crown Point Shopping Park is a 290,000 sq ft open consented shopping park, situated on the edge of Leeds City Centre. Tenants comprise a broad range of quality high street brands. The acquisition also includes an adjoining industrial investment with development potential.

David Diemer, fund manager of Morley's Out of Town Retail & Leisure properties, said: "This transaction allows us to capitalise on three years of active asset management. It has been a very successful investment in which we will continue to hold a substantial stake. We look forward to working with The Crown Estate, a similar long term active investor, in identifying further opportunities for improvement of this prime asset."

Jim Yates, head of regional and residential portfolio at The Crown Estate said: "Despite current market conditions, The Crown Estate is very much in the market to purchase quality assets. We are delighted with this exciting purchase which further reinforces our current strategy to diversify our portfolio and purchase new retail and office properties outside central London."

-ends-

For more information contact:
Fiona Hill
Corporate Communications
Morley
Telephone: 020 7809 6296

Andrew Payne
Communications Manager
The Crown Estate
Telephone: 020 7851 5271

Notes to editors:

Morley
Morley is the UK-based asset management business of Aviva plc. Firms within the Morley group of companies manage £157bn (€198bn) from offices around the world as at 31 March 2008.  

Morley manages both institutional and retail funds. It also acts as investment manager for a range of retail investment funds, marketed in the UK under the Norwich Union brand and in Europe under the Morley name.

The property team manages in excess of £29bn (€37bn) of UK and European property assets.

Aviva Investors
Operating under a single brand with more than 1,300 employees in 15 countries across the UK, Europe, North America and Asia, and subject to regulatory approval, Aviva Investors will combine businesses in the UK (Morley Fund Management), North America (Aviva Capital Management, MFM International, Aviva Investment Canada), France (Aviva Gestion d'Actifs), Australia (Portfolio Partners), Poland (CUIM Polska), Ireland (Hibernian Investment Managers), Spain (Aviva Gestion SGIIC (Gestora)) and Romania (CertInvest) and work in partnership with Delta Lloyd Asset Management in the Netherlands.

Recent Morley awards

• The G7 Fixed Income Fund (EUR) managed by Morley - winner of the Best Fixed Income Hedge Fund on a Risk Adjusted Basis at the Hedge Funds Review Eighth European Performance Awards 2008
• The Norwich Union Life and Pension fund managed by Morley - winner of the category 'Insurance Company Life Funds (£150m to £1.5bn, Dec 07)'at theIPD and Estates Gazette awards 2008
• The Holloways Properties Ltd fund managed by Morley - winner of the category 'Balanced Pooled Funds & Traditional Institutions (above £150m and below £500m, Dec 07)'atthe IPD and Estates Gazette awards 2008
• Morley - Money Market Fund category winner at Pension and Investment Provider awards 2008
• Property Manager of the Year, UK Pensions Awards 2007 and 2008
• Morley's G7 Fund awarded Fixed Income Hedge Fund of the Year, Eurohedge Awards 2006 and 2007
• Best Property Manager - Financial News Excellence in Institutional Management Awards, Europe 2007
• Morley ranks no. 1 fund manager in the Thomson Extel SRI Survey, 2007
• Equity End User of the Year - Derivatives Week DEAL Awards 2006
• Property Fund Manager of the Year, Pensions Management Awards 2006
• Best Commitment to Raising Standards of Trustee Education, Engaged Investor Awards 2006
• Property Fund Manager of the Year, Property Week Awards 2006
• SRI Provider of the Year, Global Pensions 2006

Aviva plc

• Building a global asset management capability is one of Aviva's strategic priorities and as such Aviva Investors will be a key component in Aviva's composite model of long-term savings, general insurance and asset management.
• Aviva is the leading provider of life and pension products in Europe (including the UK) with substantial positions in other markets around the world, making it the world's fifth largest insurance group based on gross worldwide premiums at 31 December 2006.
• Aviva's principal business activities are long-term savings, fund management and general insurance, with worldwide total sales of £49.2 billion and funds under management of £364 billion at 31 December 2007.
• The Aviva media centre at www.aviva.com/media includes images, company and product information and a news release archive.

¹ On 28 February 2008, Aviva plc announced it was combining its asset management businesses to create a single, globally integrated asset manager to be known as Aviva Investors - to be launched formally in September 2008.

Aviva Investors will be the global asset management business of Aviva plc, the world's fifth-largest insurance group. Firms that will become Aviva Investors have £316 billion ($623 billion) of assets under management as at 28 February 2008 and significant growth potential.