Tag: Urbil shopping centre

CBRE GI Puts Berceo Shopping Centre (Logroño) Up For Sale

25 October 2017 – Expansión

Real estate activity involving shopping centres is proving unstoppable. The fund manager CBRE Global Investors (CBRE GI) has hung the “for sale” sign up over the Berceo shopping centre, located in Logroño (La Rioja) and has engaged the consultancy firm CBRE to look for potential buyers for the asset. The shopping centre, which opened its doors in November 2003, is worth around €105 million, according to explanations provided by market sources to Expansión.

Berceo has a gross leasable area of 34,072 m2 and more than 2,600 parking spaces. The shopping centre recorded sales of €62 million in 2016, up by 9% compared to the previous year, and closed the year with 6.1 million visitors, up by 0.12% YoY. Its tenants include a number of Inditex brands, such as Zara and Pull&Bear, as well as Primark, El Corte Inglés and Media Markt. Moreover, Berceo has a Yelmo cinema and restaurant space with operators such as Foster’s Hollywood and Burger King.

With this operation, the manager is taking advantage of investors’ interest in the retail segment and, specifically, in shopping centres, to finish liquidating the portfolio of assets it inherited as a result of its acquisition of the European business of ING Real Estate, the Dutch bank’s property arm, in 2011.

Real estate investment in shopping centres amounted to a record-breaking €3,700 million in Spain in 2016. So far this year, €2,300 million has been invested in these types of assets.

Divestments

As part of that divestment strategy, CBRE GI sold off the Urbil shopping centre in Guipúzcoa and half of the Asturias Parque Principado shopping centre in 2013 – the other half was owned by Sonae Sierra. A year later, it sold Gran Vía de Vigo, Moraleja Green and Alcalá Magna, the latter two are located in Madrid.

In parallel, CBRE GI has been very active on the buy-side in recent months. Specifically, in May, the company acquired 70% of the H2O Rivas shopping centre – located in Rivas-Vaciamadrid (Madrid)– from Alpha Real Trust, which retained the remaining 30% stake. Beyond the shopping centre sector, in September, the manager teamed up with AXA IM Real Assets to purchase the student hall of residence company Grupo Resa.

The manager has approximately €3,100 million in assets under management in Spain and Portugal. Twenty of those assets are shopping centres.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Axa Puts UGC Manoteras Shopping Centre Up For Sale

14 January 2016 – Expansión

The real estate arm of the insurance company Axa has decided to put one of its most long-held assets from its Spanish portfolio on the market. The asset in question is the UGC Manoteras shopping centre, located in the north east of Madrid.

The establishment has a constructed surface area measuring 27,000 m2, of which 13,226 m2 is dedicated to retail space, according to the Spanish Association of Shopping Centres. The entire space is dedicated to leisure, with several cinema screens, operated by the company UGC Ciné Cité, and a number of restaurants.

Axa acquired this property in 2007 for €53 million, a price that may now be exceeded, given the high degree of interest that investors have in shopping centres at the moment.

The real estate subsidiary of Axa has been one of the institutional funds that has returned to the Spanish market after several years away investing in other markets. In this way, in 2014, it purchased the Urbil shopping centre in Guipúzcoa from the fund manager CBRE Global Investors for €60 million.

Last year, it also acquired the former Cine Avenida, located at number 37 on Madrid’s Gran Vía, which has now been converted into H&M’s flagship store in Madrid. For that transaction, the insurance company’s real estate subsidiary broke a market record by paying €79.7 million for the building, which has a surface area of around 4,000 m2. In other words, it paid €20,000 per m2 for the property.

At the end of April, Axa Real Estate also acquired 381 bank branches on behalf of a group of investors from the Socimi Uro Property. It paid €308 million for those properties, which are leased to Banco Santander. In addition, in August, it purchased two office buildings in Madrid (where it has its own headquarters in Spain) and Barcelona. The investment, made on behalf of one of its clients, was closed for more than €110 million.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake