Blackstone selling the retail assets

16 January, Il Sole 24 Ore

The Italian real estate continues attracting international investors. While 2017 closed with investment volumes that should have exceeded by far 10 billion euro (with 70% of the capitals coming from abroad), 2018 has already seen some operations. Despite the increasing popularity of some niches such as logistics and hospitality, offices and retails are still the main segments in Italy when investing for rental.

The Swiss fund Partners Group has signed the acquisition agreement for the purchase of six medium-sized shopping arcades from the American fund Blackstone, managed by Kryalos.

The parts have, in fact, signed an agreement in the past few days for shopping arcades distributed throughout the national territory for an amount over 200 million euro.

This is the first operation by Blackstone on the retail segment, where the American fund owns five outlets in Italy under the brand Land of Fashion.  The operation is carried out after the recovery of profitability of the six properties, acquired between 2013 and 2015 from sellers such as General Electric, Axa, Aberdeen and Sonae Sierra, and located throughout Italy from Carpi to Monselice, to Civitavecchia, Rome, Brindisi, and Melilli in Sicily.

Partners Group has invested so far in Italy an amount equal to approximately 500 million euro, focusing on the office segment in big cities as well as in retail.

In the past few years, the group has been the owner as the sole subscriber of the property fund managed by Torre Sgr, of the Il Sole 24 Ore headquarters in Via Monterosa in Milan (then sold off-market to the insurance company Axa), and of the Pirelli offices in Viale Sarca, Milan. The Sole and Pirelli headquarters were acquired in 2015 for a value around 230 million euro. The group has been also the owner of the offices of the law firm Dentons at the number one of Piazza Affari, sold one year ago to Generali.

Partners Group, together with Tpg (Texas Pacific Group) has made another acquisition concerning a portfolio valued 250 million euro for assets located in Spain and Italy. The properties in Italy are tow retail facilities in Cosenza and Bologna (the former is the shopping centre Metropolis and the latter is the retail park Navile).

Therefore, Partners Group, led by Marco Denari, has decided to invest in the Italian market.

The merchant bank Lazard has been managing the operation on behalf of Blackstone. The deal has also seen the involvement of the law firm Molinari for Blackstone and of Legance for Partners Group.

Source: Il Sole 24 Ore

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi

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