A consortium including Saudi Arabia’s Olayan Group has abandoned plans for a £2.9 billion ($3.7 billion) bid for a UK shopping mall owner.
Would be suitors, that also included Peel Group and Canadian property firm Brookfield, said that “macroeconomic uncertainty and potential market volatility” meant that they could not submit an offer for Intu.
“Given the uncertainty around current macroeconomic conditions and the potential near-term volatility across markets, the consortium is not able to proceed with an offer within a timeframe which is manageable within the confines of the code timetable,” the consortium said in a statement.
The decision comes at a time of political and economic upheaval in Britain driven by uncertainty surrounding the country’s planned departure from the EU next March.
David Fischel, Intu’s chief executive, said that Brexit worries had weighed on the deal in an interview with Reuters.
“The escalation in the news around Brexit and all the potential ramifications has obviously ramped up a lot in the last couple of weeks and has made it a very hard climate to make a big investment decision,” he was quoted as saying.
Peel and Olayan hold about 29.9 percent of the share capital of Intu while Brookfield has no interests in the shopping centre owner.
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