Tag: Lefties

Inditex Negotiates the Sale of 16 Stores to German Fund Deka

29 January 2018 – Eje Prime

Inditex has found a buyer for its portfolio of stores. The Galician fashion retailer is holding conversations with the German fund Deka Inmobilien to sell the sixteen stores that it put up for sale in December. Both companies are holding negotiations to close the acquisition for €400 million.

The agreement is expected to be closed this week in such a way that the group may include this divestment in its results for 2017, according to reports by El Confidencial. Almost 80% of the value of the portfolio corresponds to the establishments located in Madrid (the Zara store on c/Preciados and the Lefties shop on c/Carretas), Barcelona (the Zara store on c/Pelayo) and Lisbon (Rúa Augusta y Antonio Augusto de Aguiar). The remaining stores are located in Valencia, Córdoba, Albacete, Palma, Sevilla, San Sebastián, Ciudad Real, Zamora, and Fuengirola.

Zara’s parent company has received several offers for its stores. Some buyers were only interested in part of the portfolio and many were mainly interested in the Preciados store. The operation is being brokered by Savills-Aguirre Newman.

Meanwhile, Deka Inmobilien, the real estate investment division of Grupo Deka, is a buyer interested in acquiring assets in good locations, with high profile tenants and long-term contracts. Its operations in recent years include the acquisition of the Diagonal 640 office building in Barcelona for €145 million. Inditex guarantees a five-year rental term with the option of extending for another twenty years and rental prices that offer an average return of 4% for the whole portfolio.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Europa Capital Buys Gran Vía de Alicante For €52M

2 October 2017 – Expansión

Spanish shopping centres continue to be objects of desire for international investors and, specifically, for private equity funds. One of the latest to back this segment is the British fund Europa Capital, which has just closed an agreement with the real estate subsidiary of Deutsche Bank, Rreef, to acquire Gran Vía de Alicante, one of the largest shopping centres in the area.

Market sources have explained to Expansión that the operation has been closed for €52 million. The real estate consultancy JLL has advised the vendor in the process, whilst LyC and Savills have advised Europa Capital.

According to the same sources, the sales process, which opened in March, sparked interest amongst numerous investors, including Eurofund Capital Partners and Patron Capital, as well as Carmila, the subsidiary of Carrefour.

This shopping centre first opened its doors in 1998 and was renovated in 2012. The asset has a gross leasable area of 37,314 m2, spread over three floors, and includes a hypermarket occupied by Carrefour, which does not form part of the perimeter of this operation. The asset also includes a car park with 1,600 parking spaces.

Specifically, more than 70% of the asset’s surface area is leased to fashion brands such as Primark, Lefties, Pull&Bear, H&M, Bershka, Massimo Dutti and Deichmann. Moreover, the shopping centre’s other tenants include restaurant brands such as Foster’s Hollywood and Lizarrán.

Visitors

Last year, the shopping centre received 5.3 million visitors, up by 2.7% compared to the previous year. Gran Vía Alicante has increased the number of visitors almost continuously since Primark opened a store in the centre five years ago. That also resulted in a rise in sales, which exceeded €32 million last year, representing a YoY increase of 5.3%.

The asset, located at number two Calle José García Sellés, competes with Plaza Mar 2 – the largest shopping centre in the municipality – with a gross leasable area of 43,684 m2.

Other shopping centres located close to Gran Vía Alicante include Parque Vistahermosa, measuring 34,000 m2; San Vicente Outlet Park, measuring 36,500 m2; and Puerta de Alicante, measuring 34,500 m2.

Other operations

The purchase of Gran Vía Alicante by Europa Capital follows other operations closed recently in the region.

In this way, last year, TPG purchased the L’Aljub de Elche centre for €100 million for TH Real Estate. Meanwhile, Lar España acquired the Portal de la Marina shopping centre in Ondara (Alicante) for €14.5 million, and the Socimi in which Pimco holds a stake bought the Vistahermosa retail complex, which is located very close to the centre in Alicante, for €42.5 million.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Eurofund & Patron Spend €15M On Dolce Vita Odeón Shopping Centre Renovation

20 July 2017 – Eje Prime

The European investment funds Eurofund Capital Partners and Patron Capital are giving the Dolce Vita Odeon shopping centre a facelift. Work to renovate the inside and outside of the complex, which is located in Narón (A Coruña), will begin in September and the two funds will invest €15 million on the project in total.

The work will take six months and will transform the design of the external façades, as well as the common areas, the main entrances, the daytime and night-time lighting and the decoration of the squares, amongst many other elements. The joint investment, combined with the improvements already carried out at the centre since its acquisition in July 2015 by Eurofund Capital Partners and Patron Capital, amounts to around €15 million.

The investment in the aesthetic transformation of Dolce Vita Odeón, entrusted to the British architecture and interior design studio Broadway Alyan, is another step forward in the revitalisation of this centre (…).

Since July 2015, eight operators have opened stores in the centre, including Lefties, from the Inditex group, and H&M. Moreover, other firms such as Bershka, Oysho, Springfield and Pull&Bear have expanded and renovated their store concepts.

The opening of the new stores has generated employment for 70 people, in addition to the 150 new jobs associated with the construction work. The shopping centre has a gross leasable area of 25,000 m2 and 1,250 parking spaces.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Patron Capital Acquires Los Alcores Shopping Centre

30 April 2017 – ABC

A constant and silent trickle of investments has seen a significant number of the shopping centres in Andalucía change hands. The latest operation was closed in March, when the investment fund Patron Capital – which is headquartered in London and which has a portfolio worth more than €5,000 million – acquired Los Alcores, the most well-known establishment in Alcalá de Guadaíra (with a leasable area of 124,000 m2). Its tenants include H&M, Lefties, Bershka, Stradivarius and Cinesur.

The shopping centre, located at the foot of the A-92 motorway, has belonged to Incus Capital since 2013, just like El Mirador (in Cuenca) and Alzamora (in Alcoy). Now, these three properties have been acquired by Patron Capital, which has joined forces with the firm Eurofund to invest more than €13 million modernising the properties.

According to the experts, the operation makes sense, “Los Alcores is located in an area that will be served by the metro in the near future and which has large residential projects underway nearby, such as Hacienda Rosario being constructed by Aedas Homes; it is highly visible from the motorway and its tenants include many household names”, said Rosa Madrid, Director of CBRE in Andalucía, the firm that advised the operation.

A report by this consultancy highlights that the shopping centre business has “been recovering for several years and recorded a successful year in 2016”. Behind this rise is “the increase in consumption and, therefore, the good indicators in terms of visitor numbers and sales, which improved by 3.1% and 1.6%, respectively (taking the portfolio of shopping centres managed by CBRE in Spain as a sample)”.

From there, the significant interest from the major commercial brands in growing again, “which has allowed shopping centre occupancy rates to increase at a good pace”. In the CBRE portfolio, “the average occupancy rate rose from 89.6% to 93.9% between 2014 and 2016, figures that illustrate the improvement in the sector”.

If we look at what has happened over the last twelve months, it is clear that this sector “is on a roll”. At the end of 2016, the Via Outlet group – in which the London-based giant Hammerson owns a stake – purchased The Style Outlet in the town of San José de la Rinconada (better known as “The Airport Factory”). Until now, that establishment has belonged to a fund promoted by the Spanish real estate company Neinver (controlled by the Losantos family). Its major rival, the Outlet de Dos Hermanas, had already been acquired by Green Oak, just a few months earlier.

Major sales

These operations joined a long list, which also includes Grupo Lar, which sold the Airesur de Castilleja de la Cuesta shopping centre to CBRE Global Investors. And an Andalucían company has also made money in this wave, specifically, the case of Bogaris, which sold six retail parks in Andalucía and Extremadura to Redevco Iberian Ventures in the middle of last year for €95 million (including Kinepolis Pulianas, las Marismas del Polvorín and the Motril retail park).

And the activity does not end there: Axiare Patrimonio purchased the Viaparck shopping centre in Almería for €20 million; Alpha Pyrenees Trust bought the Connecta shopping centre in Córdoba….and just a few weeks ago, New Winds Group (the owner of the Windsor building in Madrid) purchased Málaga Plaza shopping centre. Just another sign of the good health of a business that is taking off again.

Original story: ABC (by Luis Montoto)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Deutsche Bank Negotiates Sale Of Gran Vía Alicante

30 April 2017 – Expansión

The real estate market for shopping centres is unrelenting. In the latest deal, Deutsche Bank has hung the “for sale” sign up over Gran Vía Alicante. The German entity’s real estate division, RREEF, which has engaged the real estate consultancy firm JLL to sell this shopping centre, has already received several offers for the asset.

Whilst the operation has not been closed yet, one of the players lining itself up as a candidate to take over the shopping centre is the British fund Europa Capital.

Moreover, one of the other investors interested in the asset is a consortium formed by Eurofund Capital Partners and Patron Capital and Carmila, the real estate subsidiary owned by Carrefour, according to market sources, which value the asset at just over €50 million.

The centre has a retail surface area of 37,300 m2, however, that figure includes a hypermarket owned by Carrefour, measuring 17,050 m2, which falls outside of the perimeter of this transaction.

Specifically, the retail space for sale, which has a gross leasable area of more than 20,200 m2, contains around 80 stores distributed over three floors, as well as an underground car park with 1,600 spaces.

Tenants

The shopping centre, inaugurated in November 1998 and renovated in 2012, received almost 5.3 million visitors last year and has an occupancy rate of 95% of its gross leasable area.

The shopping centre’s main tenants include brands such as Primark, H&M, Lefties, Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear, Juguettos, Calzedonia, Natura and Fosters Hollywood, amongst others.

Gran Vía de Alicante, located on Calle José García Sellés, competes with Plaza Mar 2, the largest shopping centre in the town, spanning 43,600 m2.

In addition, other nearby shopping centres include Parque Vistahermosa, measuring 34,000 m2, San Vicente Outlet Park, measuring 36,500 m2 and Puerta de Alicante, measuring 34,500 m2.

Investment

Shopping centres are one of the real estate assets that have sparked the most interest amongst investors in recent years.

In 2016 alone, more than €3,700 million was invested in this segment, which constituted the second largest market in the real estate sector after the office segment.

The main operations closed last year included the sale of Diagonal Mar (Barcelona), which was acquired by Deutsche Bank from Northwood in August for €495 million, and the sale of Gran Vía de Vigo, which the Socimi Lar España acquired from Oaktree for €145 million.

So far in 2017, another mega-operation has been closed with the British fund Intu’s acquiring the Xanadú shopping centre (Arroyomolinos, Madrid) for €530 million from Ivanhoé Cambridge.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Eurofund Capital & Patron Acquire 3 Shopping Centres

6 April 2017 – Inmodiario

The European investment funds Eurofund Capital Partners and Patron Capital have strengthened their presence and operations in Spain with the acquisition of three shopping centres: El Mirador, located in Cuenca; Los Alcores, in the town of Alcalá de Guadaira (close to Sevilla); and Alzamora, in Alcoy (Alicante).

Over the next few months, it will invest approximately €13 million in these centres to renew their retail offering, as well as to incorporate new domestic and international firms in the sector, and to increase the leisure and restaurant offer.

El Mirador de Cuenca is one of the iconic shopping centres in Castilla La Mancha and has no competitors in Cuenca. Inaugurated in 2002, it has a gross leasable area of 16,400 m2 and is home to more than 60 stores, including several high profile brands such as H&M, Cortefiel and Carrefour.

Los Alcores forms part of the Parque Guadaira retail area, next to the town of Alcalá de Guadaira. With a gross leasable area of 12,400 m2, its tenants include firms such as H&M, Lefties, Bershka and Stradivarius (…).

Meanwhile, the Alzamora shopping centre is also the main operator in the Alcoy area. It has a gross leasable area of 16,000 m2 and houses a wide range of retail (Zara, Massimo Dutti, Springfield) and leisure firms (cinemas, gym).

This is the second joint operation by Eurofund Capital Partners and Patron Capital in Spain, following their acquisition in July 2015 of the Dolce Vita Odeón shopping centre in Narón, near Ferrol, where it is carrying out a complete refurbishment both inside and outside the property, which, including the improvements made over the last two years, amount to €10 million (…).

Patron Capital and Eurofund

Patron Capital is an institutional investor specialising in real estate assets. It currently manages assets worth more than €5,000 million belonging to sovereign funds, universities, pension funds, private foundations and individual investors from the USA, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Patron is headquartered in London and manages its investments in Spain from its offices in Barcelona. (…).

Meanwhile, the Eurofund Group has developed the shopping resort concept in Spain, which has had enormous success in Puerto Venecia (Zaragoza), winning the MAPIC prize in 2013 for the best shopping and leisure centre in the world. (…).

Original story: Inmodiario 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Ortega Purchases Gran Vía, 32

27 January 2015 – Cinco Días

Amancio Ortega will be the landlord of one of Inditex’s competitors, the Primark Group. The founder of Zara has acquired Gran Vía, 32, the building in Madrid where the Irish company will open its flagship store in Spain.

A consortium of funds comprising PSP, APG, Phoenix Group and Sun Capital, led by Drago Capital, has announced the sale of Gran Vía 32 to Pontegadea, the real estate company owned by Amancio Ortega. PSP Investments – the public pension fund of the Canadian armed forces and one of the largest pension managers in this country – holds a 50% stake in Longshore (the company that currently owns the building); the management team of Drago Capital, the company that manages the assets, also holds a minority stake. The remaining 50% is owned by the real estate investment fund Drago Real Estate Partners, in which a number of companies hold stakes, including the Dutch firm APG (the largest pension fund in Europe), the British insurance group Phoenix Group (formerly Pearl Assurance) and the British investment company Sun Capital Partners.

Previously, the building was owned by Grupo Prisa, which sold the property to Drago Real Estate in 2008.

Spokemen of the various companies involved in the sale were not willing to disclose the amount paid, but sector sources estimate that the price would be around €400 million.

The building on Gran Vía 32 has a total floor space area of 36,376 square metres, divided into nine floors above ground, plus the ground floor and basement.

Four of the largest fashion companies in the world will share the building, and its new landlord, in Madrid. Gran Vía 32 already houses H&M, Mango and Lefties (Inditex) stores. The Irish chain Primark plans to open its largest store in Spain in the building at the end of this year, where it will have 9,000 square metres of retail space across three floors.

Primark is owned by the Associated British Foods group and now has 41 stores in Spain, after entering the market in 2006.

Madrid, Barcelona, London

Pontegadea, a company that also receives dividend income that Amancio Ortega earns from Inditex, recorded a profit of €93.3 million in 2013, an increase of 32% compared with 2012, according to information published in the El País newspaper last August, based on data extracted from the company’s accounts filed at the Commercial Registry.

The company recorded rental income of €98.5 million, an increase of €4.3 million. The volume of assets on its balance sheet amounted to €4,519.5 million. The company reduced its bank debt by €73.8 million down to €325.1 million.

In recent years, Amancio Ortega has invested in property in Madrid, Barcelona and London, although he has also done business in New York.

Pontegadea owns several landmark properties, including the Torre Picasso in Madrid, which it acquired at the end of 2011 from the FCC group for €400 million; and a building located on Manhattan’s West Side, which it bought at the end of 2013 for €69 million.

Last year, Pontegadea purchased two buildings from Sareb – the property that used to house the headquarters of Banesto, in Plaza Cataluyna, Barcelona, for €44 million and the building that houses the Apple store in Valencia, for €23.5 million.

Recently, it also purchased Rio Tinto’s headquarters in London. At the beginning of 2013, it completed the purchase of Devonshire House, in London, a building that houses 16,000 square metres of offices and retail space. In 2006, it bought another building in London, 100 Wood Street, for GBP 140 million and in 2011, it acquired an office building on Oxford Street for GBP 220 million.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alberto Ortín Ramón)

Translation: Carmel Drake