A QUESTION mark today hangs over a flagship £220m development in Southampton after Hammerson, the owner of WestQuay shopping centre, confirmed it is open to a takeover at the right price.

The property giant, which is behind plans for West Quay Phase Three, has long been rumoured as a multi-billion-pound takeover target, but has stayed tight-lipped until now.

Financial experts believe the firm would be broken up if sold - potentially leaving the multi-million-pound plans for a development of shops, public plaza and apartments in disarray.

The scheme for a shopping, leisure and business complex on vacant land next to WestQuay shopping centre was designed to confirm Southampton as the "capital of the south".

Hammerson is valued at £4.6 billion on the stock exchange, but has a property portfolio worth at least £6 billion, current developments worth £900m and a development pipeline worth £5 billion - including West Quay Phase Three.

Names linked with a possible bid for the firm include French property company Unibail Holding SA, as well as US giant General Electric's real estate arm and Australian property company Westfield Group.

Speaking at the firm's London annual meeting, Hammerson chairman John Nelson assured shareholders they would not undersell the firm. He said: "It will probably not have escaped your attention that Hammerson has recently been rumoured as a possible takeover target.

"As this is the AGM I would like to take this opportunity to reassure shareholders that the board would only consider an offer for the company which it believed fully reflected Hammerson's outstanding investment portfolio, the value of its existing development programme and the very substantial value of its pipeline which, as I said earlier, provides us with the potential to double the size of the company."

As well as WestQuay, Hammerson has investments in six of the most successful shopping centres in the UK and five of the busiest shopping centres around Paris.