Tag: supermarkets

LCN Capital Partners Signs an Agreement with Mercadona to Buy 36 of its Supermarkets

The fund specialising in the purchase and subsequent rental of assets has signed an agreement with Mercadona to acquire the 36 supermarkets that the retailer has on the market.

An international fund has closed its first operation in the Spanish real estate market, which is still suffering from the hangover caused by the effects of Covid-19. The fund LCN Capital Partners has signed a pre-agreement with Mercadona to acquire a portfolio of 36 supermarkets, which the company led by Juan Roig put on the market in March, according to sources close to the operation speaking to Brainsre.news.

As this newspaper reported, Mercadona had reached an agreement with an international fund to exclusively negotiate the sale of this portfolio of 36 commercial establishments, spread across 13 autonomous regions, after ruling out various offers from other domestic and international investors.

Ores: “Revenues from the Supermarkets and Hypermarkets Comfortably Cover the Company’s Expenses”

The Socimi backed by Bankinter and Sonae Sierra, which owns 37 commercial properties, is negotiating rent deferrals and moratoriums with its tenants who have had to close their businesses due to Covid-19.

The Socimi Ores, the commercial asset company controlled by Sonae Sierra and Bankinter, has reported the impact of Covid-19 on its real estate portfolio, which comprises 37 commercial properties.

The company, which operates in the Spanish market as well as in Portugal, has highlighted that more than half of its assets correspond to supermarkets and hypermarkets. They have not been affected by the closures imposed by the State of Emergency, introduced first in Spain on 14 March and then in Portugal on 18 March, and so they are continuing to operate. These properties account for 64% of the Socimi’s annual income, equivalent to €14 million, say the managers of Ores.

Kennedy Wilson Sells 10 Carrefour Supermarkets to Barings for €73.4M

14 January 2020 – El Confidencial

The US fund Kennedy Wilson has sold 10 supermarkets that are currently leased to the French retailer Carrefour to the British fund Barings for €73.4 million.

The stores are located in Madrid (2), Barcelona (4), Bilbao (1), Salamanca (1), Cádiz (1) and Almería (1), and together span a surface area of 38,800 m2 with 1,100 parking spaces. All of them are situated in central locations with good public transport links.

Kennedy Wilson will reportedly generate almost €30 million from the sale, which it plans to reinvest in new opportunities in Europe as well as in other projects already underway.

Original story: El Confidencial (by EC)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Eroski to Sell Hypermarkets in Southern Spain

10 July 2019 – Richard D. K. Turner

The Basque chain Eroski is selling a series of hypermarkets due to an agreement with its creditor banks to refinance a debt of €1.542 billion. The markets are all located in southern Spain, whereas the bulk of Eroski’s operations are based in the northern part of the country: Galicia, the Basque Country, La Rioja, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands.

Given the hypermarkets’ geographical disparity, Eroski opted not to mandate a single advisor to complete the sale. Rather, it will work will a series of advisers to sell the individual assets.

Original Story: Idealista

LaSalle Acquires Six Makro Stores for €73 Million

2 July 2019

LaSalle Investment Management announced that it had acquired a portfolio of six properties, all currently occupied by MAKRO Spain, from Metro Properties, as part of a sale-and-lease-back operation. The investment group acquired the portfolio on behalf of the French public pension scheme ERAFP for €73 million. Following the transaction, MAKRO Spain will remain the sole tenant of all six assets with a 15-year fixed lease term with extension options.

The six properties are located in Bilbao, Zaragoza, Badalona, Valencia, Alicante and Palma De Mallorca. Each constitutes the dominant wholesale store in its area. Makro mainly caters to buyers from the hotel, restaurant and catering sectors.

Original Story: Property Magazine International

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

 

Ores Doubles its Portfolio in a Year & Closes 2018 with Assets Worth €357.4M

11 February 2019 – Eje Prime

Olimpo Real Estate (Ores) is establishing itself in the market. The Socimi owned by Bankinter and Sonae Sierra closed last year with a portfolio comprising 34 assets worth €357.4 million. In this way, the company has doubled the valuation of its assets since the end of October 2017, a few months after it made its debut on the stock market. At that time, the firm held a total of 16 investments worth €172.6 million.

At the end of 2018, the value of the Socimi’s portfolio amounted to €357.4 million across 34 assets, comprising mainly hypermarkets (28.5%) and supermarkets (14.7%), retail parks (15.2%) and out-of-town stores (14.4%), as well as premises (8%) located on the main streets of large cities.

During the last four months of 2018, four investment operations were undertaken for a total value of €27.5 million. Specifically, the firm completed the purchase of two supermarkets, an out-of-town store in Santander and a commercial premise in Vigo.

“These operations are in line with Ores’ investment strategy, in urban locations in Spain’s main cities, and with first-class operators as tenants and long-term and stable lease contracts”, said the company in a statement sent to the Alternative Investment Market (MAB).

Ores is a company whose main activity is the acquisition and management of commercial real estate assets, both in Spain and Portugal. The company was created in December 2016 by Bankinter and Sonae Sierra, made its stock market debut at the end of February 2017 and has been increasing its investments and assets ever since.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Caprabo Sells a Batch of Six Stores in Cataluña to Lidl

5 February 2019 – Expansión

Lidl is giving a new boost to its ambitious growth strategy in Cataluña. To strengthen its position in certain locations, the German distribution chain has acquired a batch of six supermarkets from Caprabo, which together span a combined commercial surface area of 9,000 m2.

The operation involves establishments measuring more than 1,000 m2, which Caprabo inaugurated between 1997 and 2009 in the municipalities of Castelldefels, Roses, la Bisbal d’Empordà, El Vendrell, Sant Celoni and Terrassa (…).

Lidl already owns around one hundred points of sale in Cataluña, equivalent to 18% of its commercial network in Spain, which comprises more than 550 stores in total. The autonomous region is a strategic area for the multinational’s growth plan. According to Retail Data, in 2018 alone, Lidl increased its sales space in the Catalan market by 11.2%, where it now accounts for 4.6% of the market. Cataluña is Lidl’s second largest autonomous region in terms of number of supermarkets, behind Andalucía.

Meanwhile, Caprabo, owned by the Eroski group, has a network of 324 points of sale in Cataluña, Navarro and Andorra (…).

Original story: Expansión (by S. Saborit)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Ores Socimi Acquires 3 Commercial Assets for €19.7M

25 October 2018 – Idealista

Ores Socimi has circumvented some of the operations that it was studying and has leapt into action. The Socimi owned by Bankinter and the Portuguese real estate company Sonae Sierra has acquired three commercial assets, occupied by the supermarkets Mercadona and Día, and the home decor store Conforama, for €19.7 million. The purchases have been carried out in Madrid and Santander.

In Madrid, Ores has purchased an asset occupied by Mercadona, located in the town of Humanes, which has a retail surface area of 2,334 m2. That transaction was carried out for €4.1 million.

Ores has also purchased a supermarket in Getafe, which is leased to and operated by the company Día. That asset has a total surface area of 1,956 m2 and the amount of the operation was €3 million. In Santander, meanwhile, the company has invested €12.6 million in an asset operated by Conforama and with a surface area of 8,000 m2.

These acquisitions form part of a new period of purchases by Ores, which has set itself the objective of investing €30 million, as revealed by Idealista News.

In this way, Ores is continuing to grow its portfolio, which comprises 30 assets and has a combined market value of more than €328 million and a gross annual income of €19.4 million.

Ores is aimed at private banking clients. Although its portfolio of assets is small, for the time being, the Socimi made its debut on the stock market with the objective of investing €400 million in retail premises on high streets, as well as supermarkets, retail parks (up by 20,000 m2), bank branches and singular assets with long-lasting leases and solvent tenants.

Bankinter and Sonae Sierra launched their real estate vehicle in record time. On 15 December last year, the two groups constituted the company and, within just two months, they carried out the process to create the vehicle, raised sufficient capital to get it going and completed its stock market debut.

Original story: Idealista (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

CBRE: Investment in High Street Premises Will Exceed €1.1bn in 2018

5 July 2018 – Eje Prime

Commercial premises, especially those located on the most prime streets of Spain, are proving highly sought-after. According to CBRE, the high street investment market is going to achieve record figures in 2018, up to a total of €1.1 billion. The culprits? The German fund Deka and Inditex, in addition to the strength of secondary cities in the country.

During the course of the last two years, investment in high street assets remained stable at around €800 million per year, after peaking at €1.01 billion in 2015. In 2018, according to calculations from the real estate consultancy CBRE, the investment volume will exceed the €1 billion threshold again, primarily due to the impact of the sale to Deka of a batch of 16 Zara stores for €400 million and the boost from activity beyond Madrid and Barcelona.

Deka has whereby become a catalyst for the retail investment market in Spain, together with Generali and Union Investment, which also starred in major investment operations during the first few months of 2018.

Deka’s €400 million operation was the largest in the last year and a half, followed by the purchase by Hines of number 17 Paseo de Gracia for €113 million and the acquisition by Generali of number 9 Preciados for €107 million.

Institutional investors are the main drivers of the investment market in this segment, according to the Retail keys in Spain report in CBRE. “In recent years, several overseas institutional investors have entered the Spanish market and many have been active in 2017 and 2018”, according to the document, which points out that Socimis such as Tander, Ores and Silicius have also been interested in the sector.

Madrid and Barcelona are continuing to be the main magnets for high street investment in Spain and, together, they account for 79% of the total expenditure. “Nevertheless, other cities in Spain are booming and demand is rising for investment products in cities such as Bilbao, Valencia, Sevilla and Málaga”, says the document.

The displacement of demand to other cities is a consequence of product shortages and low returns. On the one hand, according to CBRE, operators have accentuated their preferences for prime streets, which has strengthened the shortage of products. “Premises with recently signed contracts are sparking a lot of interest, given that if they reflect market rents, they become a very stable long-term investment”, says the document.

On the other hand, the pressure on returns remains strong and in 2017, they were compressed further still, reaching levels of 3.25% in Madrid and 3.50% in Barcelona for the most prime products. The “historically low” values are repeated in other European cities, with 3.25% in Berlin, 3% in Milan, 2.75% in Paris and 2.25% in Munich.

As a result of those two elements, investor interest is extending to other cities in Spain, although the operations closed tend to be of greater importance, “given that the premises and the rents are lower and the returns are higher”.

With investment of €170 million outside of Barcelona and Madrid in 2017, several purchases stand out such as M&G’s acquisition of the H&M store on Reyes Católicos in Granada as well as of the El Corte Inglés building in Plaza la Magdalena in Sevilla.

Valencia and Bilbao are the markets that, typically, generate the most interest from investors due to the size of the two cities, the importance of their high streets and the role of tourism. The tradition of investment in the segment by local family offices means that returns there are compressed to 4%.

Retail and shopping centres

High street premises accounted for 25% of the total investment in retail in 2017, well behind shopping centres, which accounted for 51% of the total, but ahead of retail parks (15%) and portfolios of supermarkets and hypermarkets (9%) (…).

In Spain in 2017, investment in the Spanish retail market amounted to €3.3 billion. CBRE forecasts that the figure will amount to €2.9 billion in 2018, boosted by high street investment (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by P. Riaño)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Catella: RE Inv’t Rose By 60% During First 8 Months To €7,061M

25 September 2017 – Expansión

The Spanish real estate market is still a magnet for investment at the global level. In this way, during the 8 months to August, investment in tertiary real estate assets (in other words, non-residential properties) rose to €7,061 million. That volume is 62% higher than the figure registered during the same period in 2016, according to data from the consultancy firm Catella (…).

By type of properties, commercial assets accounted for 45% of the total investment, with a volume of more than €3,200 million, up by 52% compared to the first eight months of 2016. In fact, that figure already exceeds the amount recorded for last year as a whole and is very close to the record investment made in 2007, when commercial assets worth more than €3,590 million were sold, according to sources at the consultancy firm.

Of that amount, investment in shopping centres accounted for 60% of total retail investment, amounting to €1,929 million. The figure is explained by the completion of major operations, such as the purchase of Xanadú, in Arroyomolinos (Madrid), on which Intu Properties spent €530 million; and the operation involving Nueva Condomina, in Murcia, which Klépierre purchased for €233 million.

Interest

Large assets were not the only retail assets to spark interest: high-street premises were also on investors’ radars. As such, €711 million was spent on that type of property between January and August, with highlights including operations such as the purchase of Preciados 9, the future flagship Pull & Bear store in the centre of Madrid, by Generali for €98 million. Meanwhile, investors spent another €516 million on retail parks and supermarkets, with the operation involving a portfolio of nine retail parks leading the way – the South African investor Vukile spent €193 million on that purchase.

In the case of offices, investment increased by 46% to reach €1,512 million. “The Boston portfolio – comprising 14 office buildings located in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia – owned by BBVA and acquired by Oaktree for €180 million has been the most important transaction so far this year. In Madrid, the most significant transaction saw the acquisition of the Manoteras business park by Tristan Capital (€103 million), whilst, in Barcelona, the most high-profile deal has been the purchase of Torre Agbar by Merlin Properties (€142 million”, say sources at Catella.

During the first 8 months of 2017, hotel purchases rose by 25% to reach €1,760 million, thanks to operations such as the one involving Edificio España, for €272 million, as well as the purchase starring the international fund London & Regional (which acquired four hotels located on the coast and islands for €240 million), as well as others involving Starwood and KKR.

Moreover, the logistics sector has not been left behind in terms of the increase in investment. Between January and August, that segment saw investment grow by 31% to reach €575 million. (…). In this area, the most significant operation has been the sale of GreenOak’s portfolio to P3 Logistics Park for €243 million.

Whilst retail assets were the star product by type of property, international funds continued to be the undisputed stars in terms of buyer profile.

Between January and August, funds accounted for 42% of the total volume invested; whilst real estate companies represented 28% of the total (…). Meanwhile, the Socimis, who were the most active investors in 2014 and 2015, have seen their share of the cake decrease to 11% so far this year.

“On the other hand, core investors have returned to the market, with the acquisition of prime properties located in Madrid and Barcelona. Insurance companies, family offices and other institutional investors have purchased assets such as offices and retail premises in Madrid, with yields of around 3%”, said Carlos López, Partner at Catella.

Year-end

“…We expect 2017 to be a record-breaking year, with an investment volume of around €10,000 million, compared to the figures of more than €8,500 million in tertiary investment in 2016”, says López (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake