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Axa Puts UGC Manoteras Shopping Centre Up For Sale

14 January 2016 – Expansión

The real estate arm of the insurance company Axa has decided to put one of its most long-held assets from its Spanish portfolio on the market. The asset in question is the UGC Manoteras shopping centre, located in the north east of Madrid.

The establishment has a constructed surface area measuring 27,000 m2, of which 13,226 m2 is dedicated to retail space, according to the Spanish Association of Shopping Centres. The entire space is dedicated to leisure, with several cinema screens, operated by the company UGC Ciné Cité, and a number of restaurants.

Axa acquired this property in 2007 for €53 million, a price that may now be exceeded, given the high degree of interest that investors have in shopping centres at the moment.

The real estate subsidiary of Axa has been one of the institutional funds that has returned to the Spanish market after several years away investing in other markets. In this way, in 2014, it purchased the Urbil shopping centre in Guipúzcoa from the fund manager CBRE Global Investors for €60 million.

Last year, it also acquired the former Cine Avenida, located at number 37 on Madrid’s Gran Vía, which has now been converted into H&M’s flagship store in Madrid. For that transaction, the insurance company’s real estate subsidiary broke a market record by paying €79.7 million for the building, which has a surface area of around 4,000 m2. In other words, it paid €20,000 per m2 for the property.

At the end of April, Axa Real Estate also acquired 381 bank branches on behalf of a group of investors from the Socimi Uro Property. It paid €308 million for those properties, which are leased to Banco Santander. In addition, in August, it purchased two office buildings in Madrid (where it has its own headquarters in Spain) and Barcelona. The investment, made on behalf of one of its clients, was closed for more than €110 million.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake