380
380
  • Transaction / Assets
    2 El Corte Inglés stores (in Madrid & Bilbao)
  • Seller
    El Corte Inglés
  • Buyer
    Corpfin Capital
  • € MM
    100

ECI Sells 2 Assets in Madrid & Bilbao to Corpfin for €100M

3 August 2018 – Eje Prime

El Corte Inglés is continuing to divest property. The department store group, the largest in its sector in Europe, has closed the sale of two more properties, on prime streets in Madrid and Bilbao, to Corpfin Capital. The sale & leaseback operation has been closed with a gain of 40% with respect to the market value of the properties, at around €100 million.

Specifically, the group has divested its property at number 41 Calle Princesa in Madrid, which spans 11,400 m2 and whose market value is estimated to be around €18 million.

The company has also sold the building located at number 20 Gran Vía in Bilbao to the Spanish fund. That store has a surface area of 5,500 m2 and a market value of around €38 million.

Both properties have been on the market for two years, although the operation was closed off market. El Corte Inglés has signed a long-term lease contract with the new owner that, according to sources familiar with the operation, will charge rents that are 20% higher than the market average on both streets.

The Madrid-based group, chaired since June by Jesús Nuño de la Rosa, has framed this operation within its asset divestment plan to reduce the debt that has been weighing it down for several years. The company owns 92 centres in Spain.

El Corte Inglés has received offers for the purchase of some of its most profitable establishments, including those in Madrid, Barcelona and Marbella. One of those is Torre Titania, formerly the Windsor Building, in Madrid. At the other end of the spectrum, the department store giant owns several stores opened during the first few years of the crisis: almost 24 points of sale, most of which generate significant losses.

One of its most recent operations was closed in October, when the company sold a building in Sevilla to Stoneweg for €10 million, as reported by Eje Prime. The objective of the new owner is to convert that property into a hotel.

Original story: Eje Prime (by P. Riaño & I. P. Gestal)

Translation: Carmel Drake