British Land - owner of Solihull's Blythe Valley Business Park - has sold retail properties valued at £52 million, including the Waterstones building in Birmingham's High Street and the Morrisons ' supermarket in Kidderminster.

The company said this would not affect the companies that are currently leasing the premises.

The Kidderminster supermarket was sold to a family trust for £7.47 million, with an initial yield of 4.5 per cent. The Waterstones building went to a private pension fund for £5.5 million.

Tim Roberts, co-head of asset management at British Land, said the sales were part of an annual off-load of properties from its portfolio.

He said: "The Waterstones site is shorthold lease and does not fit into our portfolio of freehold properties.

"We chose to sell the Morrison's supermarket site because it is not meeting our current investment requirements."

British Land currently holds £1.5 billion of supermarket space - the biggest UK owner outside the supermarkets themselves. The properties were amongst nine sold by the firm.

Others included five prime high street shops in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Kingston Upon Thames and Leeds which fetched a total of £33.59 million, reflecting an average initial yield of 3.89 per cent.

British Land said it had also reached agreement with Marks & Spencer for the letting of a newly created 33,000 square foot store at Teesside Shopping Park. The opening is planned for the spring of 2006.