If you are looking to buy a few shops, or perhaps a small shopping centre, or even, say, a town centre in Edmonton Green in north London, look no further than St Modwen Properties.
The FTSE 250 regeneration specialist is on a selling spree and, frankly, it could not come soon enough. Until the start of last year, the company had languished as a property business with an erratic and sprawling portfolio that did not make a lot of sense. It had specialised in buying land that no one else wanted to develop, such as old oil refineries or steelworks, and turning them into huge sites of offices, shops and retail.
It also held a 15-year-long landbank but no real housebuilding business to speak of,