Tag: plenilunio

French fund Klépierre Acquires Plenilunio For €375M

17 March 2015 – Cinco Días

The shopping centre in Madrid, which measures 70,000 square metres, is home to brands such as H&M, Primark and Media Markt.

The active market for the sale and purchase of shopping centres in Spain recorded another milestone yesterday. The French fund Klépierre announced the acquisition of the Plenilunio shopping centre in Madrid, from Orion Capital Managers for €375 million. The transaction had been in the pipeline for months and was expected to close during the first half of the year.

The Plenilunio shopping centre is located in Madrid and measures 70,000 square metres. It is home to brands such as Primark (where the Irish company has its largest store in Spain, although its flagship store on Gran Vía will take over that title when it opens later this year); Inditex, Mercadona, H&M, Mango and Media Markt.

The transaction announced yesterday is the second largest ever involving a shopping centre in Spain. The largest involved the sale of Puerto Venecia in Zaragoza. The investment fund Orion, which was also the vendor of Plenilunio, received €451 million from that sale. Through these two transactions, which have taken place within four months of each other, more than €820 million has changed hands in the sale and purchase of shopping centres. The third largest sale in Spain was also closed in 2014 involving the Marineda City shopping centre in La Coruña, which was sold for €260 million.

Plenilunio is the first large sale to be closed in 2015, after record figures were registered in the shopping centre real estate market in 2014 – total investment amounted to €2,500 million, according to data from the Spanish Shopping Centre Association (‘Asociación Española de Centros y Parques Comerciales’ or AECC). The organisation itself thinks repeating the volume recorded last year again this year will be challenging.

The sector’s trade association also highlighted the importance of contributions from overseas funds to ensuring that investment volumes in Spain are higher than their pre-crisis levels. The French firm that has acquired Pleniluno already has a presence in the country through the La Gavia and Príncipe Pío shopping centres in Madrid; Meridiano in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Maremagnum in Barcelona.

Turnover of €21 million per year

The French investment group confirmed yesterday in a statement that it expects the Plenilunio shopping centre, which had an occupancy rate of 99.3% at the end of last year, to generate annual revenues of €21 million. Its turnover increased by 15% last year. The fund said it has “plans to differentiate” the property, which (it expects) will result in improved cash flows.

Klépierre reported that it had paid the €375 million consideration using its own funds. The group ended last year with liquidity of €2,700 million. Nevertheless, according to the statement, it does not rule out (the possibility of taking out) a mortgage loan (on the property). The company estimates that it has assets in Spain valued at €1,400 million. PwC advised Klépierre on the transaction and Cushman and Wakefield advised Orion.

The French group confirmed that Plenilunio is a “dominant shopping destination” in Madrid, with more than 10.5 million visitors per year and a catchment area of 1.5 million inhabitants. Its proximity to the centre of the city, its visibility from the main arteries (roads) into and out of the city and its good public transport links are the main attractive features for the company. It said that 14,000 homes are currently being built in the area, which in general has a purchasing power than is 30% higher than the Spanish average and where 33% of the population falls into the highest income bracket.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Diego Larrouy)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Klépierre Close To Finalising Its Purchase Of Plenilunio

20 February 2015 – Modaes

The French company Klépierre, which specialises in the management of retail properties, is putting the finishing touches to its purchase of the Plenilunio shopping centre. The retail complex located in Madrid is one of the largest in Spain with a gross leasable area (GLA) of 70,000 square metres.

In the final stretch of the sales process, Klépierre has overtaken the fund manager Tiaa Henderson and the German fund Invesco, which have also been bidding for the property in recent weeks.

Currently, Plenilunio is owned by the fund Orion. Klepierre would be willing to pay between €380 million and €390 million for the shopping centre, which comes close to the asking price set by the current owners (€400 million). Negotiations beween Orion and Klépierre are now in full swing and a deal could be reached within the next few days. The sale of Plenilunio would break the record for the purchase of a shopping centre in Spain.

The Madrilenian centre occupies a surface area of 220,000 square metres, of which 70,000 square metres are leasable. Some of the most important fashion brands have stores in the centre, including H&M, Inditex and Primark; the latter operates its largest store in Spain in this centre.

Klépierre has an asset portfolio valued at €14,000 million and has a presence in thirteen European countries, including Italy, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Turkey.

Original story: Modaes

Translation: Carmel Drake

Talus To be Ortega’s Neighbour On Gran Vía

29 January 2015 – Cinco Días

Two buildings on the same street in Madrid have changed hands within just over a week of each other. The fund Talus Real Estate has agreed the acquisition of the building on Gran Vía 30 (on the corner of Calle Valverde) for €42 million. On Monday, the company Drago Real Estate announced the sale of its building on Gran Vía 32 to Pontegadea, the company that owns Inditex’s real estate assets and receives its dividends on behalf of Amancio Ortega, the founder and primary shareholder of the fashion group.

According to sources close to the negotiations, JLL and Aguirre Newman have participated in the sale of the property on Gran Vía 30, as advisory consultants. However, the companies involved did not want to confirm this information yesterday.

The same sources said that the buyer plans to refurbish the property. The fashion chain Sfera, owned by El Corte Inglés, has a store that occupies two floors of the building.

Talus Real Estate’s main executives are David Finkel and Jordi Moix and its headquarters are located in Madrid. According to the company’s website, before joining Talus, Finkel worked for Westbrook Parners, where he co-directed their business in London. Westbrook Partners is a real estate investment group that was founded in 1994, has offices in the US, London, Munich, Paris and Tokyo and has invested USD 10,000 million to date. Prior to that, he worked for the Japanese entity, Nomura and for iStar Financial, another international real estate investment group.

Moix has held senior positions in the Spanish real estate companies Reyal Urbis, Metrovacesa, Layetana and Habitat; he has also worked for IAG and Citibank. Currently, he is vice-president of FC Barcelona’s real estate business.

Gran Vía is trading up

The sale of the property on Gran Vía 30 is the latest in a series of transactions undertaken on the Madrid street that will change its appearance as it approaches its 105th birthday.

The fashion group Primark will occupy several floors of Gran Vía 32, when it opens its largest store in Spain there. Talus Real Estate will also refurbish the Gran Vía 30 building. In Plaza de España, the Chinese group Wanda will convert the Edificio España into a luxury hotel and shopping centre. Next to the building sold by Santander, the hotel chain Barceló will take over some of Torre Madrid to open another hotel.

Late last year, Axa Real Estate, a subsidiary of the insurance company Axa, acquired Gran Vía 37, where the fashion retailer H&M has its largest store in Spain and which used to house the Avenida cinema, for €80 million. Also last year, the Community of Madrid sold Gran Vía 20 for €20 million to Caja Rural de Almendralejo Sociedad Cooperativa de Crédito.

2015, another big year for real estate investment

With the sale of Gran Vía 32 and the upcoming sale of the Plenilunio shopping centre, the amount of investment in Madrid will amount to €800 million. According to sources familiar with the transaction, the sale of the shopping centre will reach a figure close to €400 million.

In 2014, investment in real estate in Spain amounted to between €6,000-€9,000 million, almost twice the figures recorded in the previous three years.

During the year ahead, Socimis, which revolutionised the sector in 2014, will continue to invest, as will investment banks, whereby replacing opportunistic funds. The liquidity injection announced by the ECB will boost the sector. The expected sale of Realia will be another major transaction. Industry experts are also drawing attention to investment in logistics platforms.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alberto Ortín Ramón)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Klépierre, Invesco And TH Offer €350m For Plenilunio

19 January 2015 – Expansión

The home straight/ Orion receives three binding offers for the Plenilunio Retail Park. Unibail Rodamco withdraws from the process.

The sales process for one of the largest shopping centres in Madrid is in its final stages with three finalists. The French company Klépierre and the funds Tiaa Henderson (TH) and Invesco have all submitted binding offers for the property.

Invesco is the latest candidate to join the bid for the centre; the French-Dutch group Unibail Rodamco has withdrawn from the process. The shopping centre operator had expressed interest in acquiring Plenilunio to create a Golden Triangle in Madrid, as the owner of three landmark properties: La Vaguada, ParqueSur and through this transaction, Plenilunio. However, the high price offered by its competitors has put pay to Unibail Rodamco’s aspirations, explain industry sources. The British real estate company Grosvenor has also expressed interest in the centre, according to real estate sources.

Thus, TH – which bid alongside a sovereign fund -, Invesco and Klépierre would all be willing to pay €350 million for this property, which occupies a surface area of 220,000 square metres. Plenilunio has 70,000 square metres of retail space (GLA), distributed over three floors, plus 2,500 parking spaces, according to the Spanish Association of Shopping Centres. The property, which has an occupancy rate of almost 98%, generates annual rental income of €20 million.

Upon receipt of the binding offers, the current owner, the US fund Orion, must choose whether to negotiate with a single finalist or to conduct a final competition with two of the finalists. It is expected to take this decision quickly as it aims to close the sale during the first quarter of 2015, as revealed by Expansión on 17 December.

Plenilunio, which opened in May 2006, was developed by the Spanish real estate firm Riofisa (acquired soon after by Colonial). Before its opening, Banco Santander bought the property for €275 million, and then sold it onto Orion for €235 million in 2009.

The US fund controls the property through its company Orion Columba which adopted a Socimi structure in September 2013. The sale of Plenilunio is the second large divestment that Orion has undertaken in Spain in recent months – it closed the sale of the Puerto Venecia shopping centre in Zaragoza at the end of 2014. The property, the largest in Spain, was acquired by the British real estate company, Intu Properties for €451 million. In October 2013, Orion paid €144.5 million for the 50% of the centre that it did not already own.

Plenilunio is one of 80 shopping centres expected to change hands over the next few months in Spain, according to Deloitte Real Estate. In 2014, more than €2,100 million was invested in shopping centres across the country, driven by the sale of Marineda in La Coruña for €260 million and Islazul in Madrid for €232 million.

Original story: Expansión (Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake