Allianz Real Estate has financed a Spanish retail asset for Merlin Properties, its first in Spain.
The German investor said it has provided Merlin’s Retail Socimi REIT vehicle with a €133.6m ($152m) loan facility on the Marineda centre, in La Coruna.
Merlin paid €270m for the 200,000sqm asset in July last year at a 6.6% net initial yield. The deal was the largest single-asset investment in the shopping centre sector in Spain since 2008.
The shopping centre and an adjacent hotel, together with IKEA, El Corte Inglés and a business centre make Marineda the second largest shopping and leisure complex in Spain.
Allianz Real Estate said the financing was evidence that Spanish real estate market was becoming increasingly interesting for institutional investors.
It is not known if Merlin has sought additional finance from other sources for the mall.
Allianz Real Estate, which began lending in 2011, is not averse to joining lending pools or writing loans alongside banks.
Speaking at Expo Real in Munich last year, Roland Fuchs, head of European real estate finance at Allianz Real Estate, said Germany and France are the countries where cooperative lending had “developed furthest” in Europe.
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