The sale of the retail park in Leicester, which is believed to be the most profitable in the UK, would be Britain's biggest retail deal for seven years. The price is believed to be at least £360m ( 525m).

Only last February, private property company Reit Asset Management and the Apollo International Real Estate fund paid £308m to buy Fosse from previous owner Pillar Property. A lockout clause barred the resale of the park within a year.

Reit is understood to have received a number of unsolicited offers in recent months for the 417,000 sq ft shopping park. A syndicate of private Irish investors put together by CB Richard Ellis Gunne was in the running to buy Fosse last year. It is understood, however, that the purchaser lined up to buy the retail park this time around is an Irish company.

One of the key attractions of Fosse, which was built in 1989, is that it has an unusual planning consent that enables both high street retailers and so-called 'big box' retailers such as B&Q to trade there. Fosse is a valuable commodity as such outof-town retail parks have been more or less barred on planning principles by the British government since it was built.

Fosse has more than 40 stores, with major traders including Argos, BHS, Boots and Marks & Spencer, as well as a string of high street fashion names including Gap, Principles, Dorothy Perkins, Burtons, Wallis and Next.

The sale of the retail park would be the biggest in Britain's retail sector since British Land paid more than £1bn in 1999 to buy the Meadowhall centre in Sheffield. A £360m price tag would represent a yield of 5%.