Month: February 2018

31 January 2018 – Eje Prime

The fund Thor Equities is closing its positions in Spain. The group has sold number 16 Calle Fuencarral to the institutional fund Union Investment. Just before the operation, Thor Equities signed a rental contract to lease the store to the Swedish giant H&M, the second largest fashion retailer in the world, which will open a branch of its Cos chain there.

The establishment has a surface area of 1,320 m2, according to explanations provided in a statement issued by Union Investment and Thor Equities. The five-storey property was constructed in 1900 and was completely renovated in 2017. The fund changed the use of the property in order to convert it into a mega-store, whereby following the trend in the market in the centre of Madrid, as well as the example set by other real estate investors.

The operation, whose amount has not been disclosed, represents the first purchase by Union Investment in the market for high-street stores in Spain, although assets in the retail sector already account for 30% of the portfolio that the fund manages in Europe.

Nevertheless, the group already owned assets in the Spanish market. What’s more, the fund has already started to cash in some of its properties in the country with the sale of the former headquarters of Marsans. The Pórtico Building, located in Campo de las Naciones in Madrid, is up for sale for €130 million, a higher amount than the €115 million that the German investment group paid in 2009 to the now extinct travel company.

Headquartered in Frankfurt, the German company currently has several high profile tenants leasing that property, including: Pepsico, Pullmantur, Nautalia and Beam España, amongst others. With a gross leasable area of 27,000 m2, the Pórtico Building was designed by the architecture studios SOM and Rafael de La-Hoz.

Union Investment’s decision to put this asset on the market comes at a time when there is a distinct shortage of space in the office segment, after the leasing of offices grew by 31% in Madrid in 2017, to 543,000 m2, according to the consultancy Cushman&Wakefield.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake