Knight Frank: High Street Investment Soared by 84% to €1.3bn in 2018

31 January 2019 – Eje Prime

The real estate sector has closed another year with a strong performance in the Spanish market. As we approach the end of the real estate cycle in the country, the tertiary sector is continuing to maintain high levels of investment, with growing rents and sustainable yields.

In the retail sector, the investment volume amounted to around €3.7 billion in 2018, according to data from Knight Frank. The main driver of that investment was the high street, where spending soared by 84% to €1.3 billion.

Despite that, the bulk of retail investment in Spain continued to be directed towards shopping centres, which accounted for 54% of the total last year with major operations such as the sale of the Summit portfolio, owned by Sonae Sierra in conjunction with CBRE GI, and of which 87% is now controlled by JT Real Estate.

Moreover, the consultancy firm highlights that interest has increased from investors in shopping centres and isolated retail warehouses in good locations “which allow them to manage last mile delivery points”, said the consultancy firm.

Returns have remained stable across the three segments with yields of 5.25% for retail parks, 4.25% for shopping centres and 3% for high street assets.

Despite the strong performance of the retail sector in 2018, the jewel in the Spanish real estate crown is still the logistics segment. In 2018, investment in logistics assets amounted to €1.255 billion, close to the record set in 2017 of €1.28 billion.

In the last quarter, several large operations were closed, such as Blackstone’s purchase of a portfolio of 55 assets from Neinver for €300 million.

Interest in the segment continues to generate expectations regarding the compression of yields, and so Knight Frank forecasts returns of around 5% this year.

Finally, the office sector has also maintained a robust rate of activity, after the maximums recorded in 2017 thanks to operations undertaken by the Administration. Specifically, Knight Frank estimates that 2018 closed with a gross absorption of 493,000 m2.

Following the trend set in 2017, 52% of the surface area leased was located outside of the M-30, although during the final quarter, it was the secondary centre that accounted for the bulk of the space rented, around 35%.

Prime office rents remained stable at around €30.5/m2/month, and reached maximums of €38.5/m2/month in the most sought-after areas of the business district.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sonae Sierra & JT Purchase 3 Shopping Centres in Spain for €485M

19 December 2018 – Eje Prime

Sonae Sierra and the Slovak fund JT have closed the purchase of three Spanish shopping centres that had been put on the market by the Portuguese group itself and CBRE GI. The two companies have created a joint venture to acquire Gran Casa (Zaragoza), Max Center (Vizcaya) and Valle Real (Cantabria) for €485 million, as Eje Prime revealed in August.

Boosted by the property developer Peter Korbačka, JT Real Estate is going to control 87% of the joint venture, and Sonae will be the owner of the remaining 12%, as well as the manager of the three centres. To date, the assets had been owned 50/50 by the Portuguese group and CBRE GI.

The three commercial complexes are currently immersed in projects to renovate and improve their commercial mixes “to provide experiences to our visitors and generate value for our stakeholders” explained sources at Sonae Sierra.

The operation that has been signed is in line with the Portuguese group’s current strategy of “reaching agreements with large international investors who are looking for an operating partner with the aim of increasing the value of the assets acquired and generating value for investors”, say sources at the company.

Pedro Caupers, Investment Director at Sonae Sierra, believes that this agreement with JT “will be the start of a long-term relationship that may extend to include new projects, both in Spain and in other European countries”. Meanwhile, Peter Korbačka has said that “Spain is one of the most robust markets within the real estate sector in Europe”.

With its headquarters in Bratislava, JT Real Estate is one of the main real estate groups in Slovakia. The company, which started life in 1996, currently employs around 300 people and operates in various segments. This will be its first transaction in the Spanish market.

Meanwhile, Sonae Sierra administers and controls 46 shopping centres in Europe and Latin America, with a gross leasable area (GLA) of 1.9 million m2 and a market value of €7 billion. The company operates in twelve countries around the world and, in 2017, 438 million people visited its complexes.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Bogaris to Place Torrecárdenas on Market for More than €160 Million Just Before Opening

13 August 2018

The shopping centre in Almeria has more than 60,000 square meters of GLA. Potential candidates for the acquisition must consider the lack of a track record for the new complex and a lawsuit filed by executive Tomás Olivo.

A new operation is targeting the shopping centre sector. Torrecárdenas, a new centre that will open its doors at the end of October in Almería, will go on sale in coming weeks with an estimated valuation of 160 million euros. Bogaris, the owner of the project, has decided to put it on the market before its opening and the resolution of a lawsuit filed by the executive Tomás Olivo, who is challenging the construction license granted for the complex.

Torrecárdenas will have a gross leasable area of more than 60,000 square meters and, just over two months before its inauguration, already has an 85% occupancy, from operators such as Primark, Inditex, Media Markt, Sfera, Mercadona and Yelmo. The centre will have about 20,000 square meters of retail park and about 42,000 meters of shopping gallery.

The complex, with several elements inspired by film production, was designed by the architectural studios of Chapman Taylor and Arapiles Arquitectos. Along with the stores, the centre will have more than 3,000 parking spaces.

Sector sources note that, with a purchase price of 160 million euros, the centre will offer a return of between 6% and 6.5%, considering a net income of around 2.5 million euros per year. Savills-Aguirre Newman will be exclusively in charge of the sale and is confident that it can be concluded before the end of the year.

Specializing in the development of large commercial, logistics and industrial areas, Bogaris has developed more than 700,000 square meters of GLA in 94 projects in Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria and Romania. The Seville-based company, controlled by the Charlo family, has developed other shopping centres such as the Aleste Plaza, in Seville, and the Loures shopping mall, in Portugal.

Possible buyers

Sources close to the sales process cite operators such as Castellana Properties, ECE and the alliance between Sonae Sierra and JT Real Estate as potential buyers of the new centre. However, not too many potential buyers are expected to appear.

While the high occupancy is one of the centre’s advantages, the disadvantages include the lack of track record for the new centre in Almeria, since it is being put on sale before its opening, and the litigation surrounded the construction license granted by the Almería city council.

Last November, the city council paid 2.6 million euros to Bogaris complying with a ruling that determined that a new reparcelling project had to be carried out on the centre’s land. The lawsuit, filed by Mr Olivo, is now with the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia.

Original Story: EjePrime – P. Riaño

Translation: Richard Turner

 

 

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