El Corte Inglés Values Its Properties In Galicia At €600m

26 January 2015 – La Voz De Galicia

El Corte Inglés’s Galician assets account for almost 5% of the total, valued at €15,000 million.

The value of the real estate assets owned by El Corte Inglés in Galicia amounts to €601 million. So the company led by Dimas Gimeno revealed in information sent to the Irish Stock Exchange (the stock market in Ireland), on the occasion of its first bond issue (€500 million) placed by Hipercor.

According to the 333-page document, El Corte Inglés owns 217,000 square metres of retail space in Galicia, with an average value of €2,344 per square metre. Overall, the group’s most expensive buildings are located in Madrid (€4,823 million), followed by Andalucía (€2,563 million) and Cataluña (€1,646 million).

The group has explained to the Irish regulator that Tinsa Tasaciones Inmobiliaria valued most of the group’s property portfolio in September 2013 and March 2014, and assigned it an aggregated value of €15,126 million, of which almost 5% (by surface area) is located in the region of Galicia.

Department stores account for the majority of the group’s real estate assets (€9,187 million), followed by hypermarkets (€4,338 million), other retail space (€803 million) and offices and mixed-use properties (€797 million). “The group has developed an irreplicable property portfolio with unique locations” says the group.

At the end of last year, the group had around 1,555 outlets in total, including 88 department stores, 43 hypermarkets, 203 supermarkets and 451 specialist stores.

42 properties

According to the document, at the end of last year, the group’s commercial presence in Galicia comprised 42 outlets located across the four provinces, including Viajes El Corte Inglés offices (15), Sfera stores (11), Bricor stores (4), Óptica 2000 shops (4), Hipercor stores (2), Supercor shops (11) and El Corte Inglés stores (4).

The department store business accounts for almost 60% of the group’s consolidated turnover. Including Hipercor, Sfera and Viajes El Corte Inglés, amongst others, the group’s revenue amounted to €14,291 million in 2013.

Within the department store division, 51.1% of turnover is generated by the fashion, accessories, jewellery and beauty departments, which together accounted for revenues of €3,858 million.

In the document submitted to the Irish regulator, the group also highlighted the importance of its brands (the fashion lines Emilio Tucci, Green Coast, Dustin and Formul@), which now account for 16% of revenues, compared with 11% in 2008.

The group also revealed that approximately 635 million people visited its stores during 2013. Furthermore, 155 million people visited its website, where it has 4.2 million registered users.

Only twelve female directors

In the final part of the report, which focuses on accounting aspects, there is also mention of employment considerations.

For example, last year, its workforce comprised 93,223 employees, however only 12 of its executives were women, compared with 186 men. Also, 4,276 females were employed as supervisors, versus 9,141 men. In stores, however, women were in the majority, with 47,434 female sales assistants, versus 18,283 males.

Original story: La Voz De Galicia (by M. Sío Dopeso)

Translation: Carmel Drake