Portugal 
Italy 
Greece 
10 July 2015 – Expansión
The French-Dutch group Unibail Rodamco, one of the largest shopping centre owners in Europe, has closed the sale of one of its assets in Spain: the Sevilla Factory.
According to the Spanish Association of Shopping Centres, the property, which opened in the year 2000, has a constructed surface area of 20,000 m2, of which almost 16,000 m2 comprises retail space, and is spread across one floor. In addition, the shopping centre has 1,200 parking spaces.
The new owner of the centre is the fund GreenOak. That fund closed one of the largest shopping centre transactions in Spain last year, together with Baupost and the Spanish real estate company Lar, when it acquired seven properties in Madrid, Málaga, Barcelona, Burgos and Alicante. It paid €160 million to Vastned for those properties. According to real estate sources, the fund will now spend €15 million on Sevilla Factory.
Knight Frank has advised Unibail and Deloitte’s RE team has advised GreenOak. Both have declined to comment on the deal.
Background
Through this transaction, Unibail Rodamco continues with its plans to divest its shopping centres in Spain that have lower footfalls. Sevilla Factory receives an average of 1.9 million visitors per year.
To this end, in recent months, the company has sold several shopping centres and has been preparing new deals. In December, Unibail sold the Habaneras shopping centre in Alicante to the US fund Harber for €65 million. Whilst a few months earlier, it sold Albacenter to the Socimi Lar España for €28.4 million.
Now, the French-Dutch real estate company is considering selling Equinoccio in Majadahonda (Madrid) and Barnasud in Barcelona. Unibail Rodamco is also the owner of other shopping centres in Spain, such as La Vaguada and Parquesur in Madrid and Splau in Barcelona.
Meanwhile, GreenOak is one of the funds that is backing Spain most heavily at the moment. Since its creation in 2010, it has invested around $2,500 million. Now it is focused on four key markets: USA, Japan, England and Spain.
Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)
Translation: Carmel Drake