ECE and J&T Bid in RE Operation of the Year

12 June 2018 – Expansión

One of the real estate mega-operations of the year is entering the home stretch. The German manager specialising in retail ECE and the Slovakian real estate leader J&T Real Estate are positioning themselves as favourites to acquire the Valle Real (Santander), Max Center (Bilbao) and Gran Casa (Zaragoza) shopping centres, currently owned by Iberian Assets, a joint venture in which the fund managers CBRE Global Investors (CBRE GI) and the multi-national Sonae Sierra both hold 50% stakes.

In the case of the Slovakian firm, the operation would be carried out through an alliance with Sonae Sierra and would represent J&T Real Estate’s debut in Spain.

Market sources explain that, in both cases, the bids for these assets exceed €450 million and reveal that the transaction could be closed within the next few weeks.

The portfolio, baptised as Project Summit, includes almost 117,000 m2 of gross leasable space in total (owned by Iberian Assets) and together, the three centres received 24 million visitors last year. CBRE GI and Sonae Sierra engaged the real estate consultancy firms CBRE and JLL at the beginning of the year to sell the three shopping centres.

The assets

Valle Real, opened in November 1994, has a gross leasable area of 47,725 m2, spread over two floors and is fully occupied (100%).

The shopping centre, located in Santander, closed last year with 5.9 million visitors. Valle Real includes a Carrefour hypermarket, which occupies almost 16,000 m2. Its other main tenants include Primark, Inditex, H&M and Forum Sport.

Meanwhile, Max Center is located in Bilbao and it opened its doors for the first time in 1997. The asset was remodelled in 2000 and its tenants include Inditex, H&M, Cortefiel, La Tagliatella, Foster’s Hollywood and Cinesa.

The shopping centre also has an adjoining leisure space, Max Ocio, which opened in 2002.

In total, the centre has a surface area of almost 40,000 m2 and it also received 5.9 million visitors last year.

Gran Casa, inaugurated in 1997, has a gross leasable area spanning 80,000 m2, almost half of which is occupied by Hipercor, and with an overall occupancy rate of 93%. Last year, the shopping centre, located in Zaragoza, received 12.2 million visitors.

If the transaction goes ahead, it will be the largest (non-corporate) operation in the real estate sector so far this year by transaction volume.

Moreover, the sale of the Summit portfolio would clear the way for the sale of another major commercial portfolio by Unibail Rodamco.

The shopping centre giant has hung the “for sale” sign up over four of its shopping centres in Spain – Los Arcos (Sevilla), Bahía Sur (Cádiz), Vallsur (Valladolid) and El Faro (Badajoz) – an operation that may exceed the volume of Project Summit.

Investment

According to data from the Spanish Association of Shopping Centres and Retail Parks (AECC), last year 29 transactions, involving 36 assets, were closed for a total sum of €2.7 billion, which represented growth of 35% YoY.

So far this year, several significant operations have been closed such as the sale of a portfolio of 14 premises by Inditex to the German fund Deka for €370 million (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Bankinter & Sonae’s Socimi Buys Retail Asset For €4.7M

31 July 2017 – Eje Prime

The Socimi Ores is continuing its shopping spree in Spain. The real estate arm of Bankinter and the Portuguese firm Sonae Sierra is fattening up its asset portfolio in Spain with the purchase of a new retail space, on this occasion in Cádiz. The acquisition of the property, which is leased to the supermarket chain Aldi, has involved an investment of €4.7 million by the group, which was launched in February when it debuted on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB).

The Socimi, which started out without any assets in its portfolio, has been acquiring different properties over the last two months. The latest is located in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, in Cádiz, has a retail surface area of 2,085 m2 and can be found at number 13 on Avenida de Guzmán el Bueno.

“With this acquisition, which has been financed entirely using own funds, the company is continuing to fulfil the investment objectives set out in its Business Plan and in accordance with the financial parameters agreed with its shareholders”, say sources at Ores Socimi.

Another one of the most recent acquisitions undertaken by Bankinter and Sonae’s real estate investment vehicle involved an asset located in Oviedo that the company purchased in May. Located in the Montecerraro neighbourhood, the retail property is leased to Mercadona and has a surface area of more than 2,700 m2. Ores paid €5.8 million for that asset.

Also in May, the Socimi acquired the establishment that the German electronics chain MediaMarkt leases in Braga, in Portugal. That point of sale has a gross leasable area of 4,986 m2 and was acquired for €5.7 million.

Nevertheless, Ores made its debut purchase in April, when it acquired its first two real estate assets. The company, which invests only in retail premises, bought two stores located in the Artea and Galari retail parks in Bilbao and Pamplona, respectively, for which it paid €18.7 million. Both assets, which have a combined surface area of 8,400 m2, are leased to the sports equipment chain Forum Sport.

Ores is aimed at private banking clients. Although for the time being, its portfolio of assets is relatively small, the Socimi made its debut on the stock market with the aim of investing €400 million in high street premises, supermarkets, retail parks (up to a maximum surface area of 20,000 m2), bank branches and singular assets with long-term rental contracts and solvent tenants (…).

Ores was created from contributions made by Bankinter’s private banking clients (in other words, HNWIs) through a capital increase amounting to €196.6 million. In this way, the private banking clients and some institutional investors control almost 86% of the company’s share capital. The entity led by María Dolores Dancausa, meanwhile, has retained ownership of a 10% stake and Sonae Sierra owns just under 4%.

Original story: Eje Prime (by C. Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake