El Corte Inglés Closes Los Arcos & Bahía Sur Shopping Centres and Sells Them to Castellana Properties

27 May 2019 – Cinco Días

El Corte Inglés has reached an agreement with Castellana Properties to sell two shopping centres in Andalucía, specifically Los Arcos (11,000 m2) in Sevilla and Bahía Sur (12,000 m2) in Cádiz, for €36.8 million.

The deal will become effective on 30 September, on which date both the El Corte Inglés store in Bahía Sur and the Hipercor in Los Arcos will be closed. The department store group will use the funds to reduce its debt, which amounted to €3.7 billion at the end of the first half of 2018.

The operation does not form part of Project Green, the portfolio containing 95 non-strategic real estate assets that ECI has entrusted to PwC, and whose sale is still on-going. According to market sources, the only bid received so far for the entire portfolio has come from the US fund Apollo.

Meanwhile, the Socimi Castellana Properties, which is listed on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB), is controlled by the South African group Vukile, and has 17 assets in its portfolio including shopping centres, retail parks and offices spanning a combined leasable surface area of 317,106 m2, worth €916 million.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz & Javier García Ropero)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake