Tag: Aviva Investors

Aviva & LaSalle Buy El Tormes Shopping Centre For €70m

10 April 2017 – IPE Real Estate

Aviva Investors and LaSalle Investment Management have bought a Spanish shopping centre for their jointly managed European open-ended fund.

The El Tormes shopping centre in Salamanca was bought for €70m for Encore+, bringing the fund’s asset to €1.2bn.

El Tormes was acquired in a share deal from Retail Property Fund Iberica (RPFI), managed by CBRE Global Investors.

The 22,600 sqm shopping centre includes premium fashion retailers, restaurants, supermarkets and speciality retailers.

Jeffrey King, fund manager for Encore+ at Aviva Investors, said: “We are very pleased to be making a further investment in Spain as Encore+ continues to diversify its portfolio across the continent.

“In addition to Spanish retail being a core target for us, this new acquisition also fits well with our strategy of targeting dominant shopping centres in strong and sustainable locations across Europe.

“This asset is poised to benefit from the continued recovery in Spain, while also offering the potential for specific asset management initiatives to improve the centre’s performance.”

Ian Williamson, investment manager for Encore+ at LaSalle Investment Management, said the acquisition increased the fund’s diversification, bringing its retail exposure close to one-third of the overall portfolio.

He said: “We see this as an opportunity to generate value by repositioning the asset within the core-plus spectrum and maximising its strong fundamentals.”

Original story: IPE Real Estate

Edited by: Carmel Drake

Encore+ Acquires Shopping Centre In Bilbao

4 December 2015 – Expansión

The real estate fund Encore+ has completed the purchase of the Bilbondo shopping centre in Bilbao. The property has a surface area of 40,000 m2 as well as 2,000 parking spaces, and was previously owned by another international fund, CBRE Global Investors.

Encore+ has closed the purchase through its management company LaSalle Investment, which shall manage this shopping centre alongside Aviva Investors. The establishment’s main appeal is its high occupancy rate in an area of influence that spans one million people.

The property was acquired from Eroski in 2010 by the then real estate arm of ING (now CBRE Global Investors) for around €50 million. Now, Bilbondo has been transfered for €60 million. “We are very happy to be incorporating this real estate asset into our portfolio, whereby expanding our exposure in Spain, where we expect to see considerable growth”, explains Gil Bar, the fund manager for Encore+ at Aviva.

Through this deal, the fund, which focuses its investments in continental Europe, joins the long list of international companies that have closed purchases of commercial assets in Spain in the last year, such as HIG and Kennedy Wilson, amongst others.

Hotel

Meanwhile, Mazabi Gestión de Patrimonios, the Spanish group that manages more than €750 million of real estate assets for several large, wealthy Spanish investors, has closed the acquisition of two hotels, the Iberostar Santa Eulalia in Ibiza and the Iberostar Costa del Sol, in Estepona (Málaga) for €60 million.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake