Allianz Real Estate said on Thursday that it has provided financing worth over €310 mln for two separate acquisitions in Spain.
Over €180 mln was provided for ECE European Prime Shopping Centre Fund II’s acquisition of the intu Asturias retail asset in Oviedo, Spain. The bulk of the loan was delivered through Allianz Real Estate’s Luxembourg-based debt vehicle.
This latest transaction follows a deal completed at the end of 2019 whereby Allianz Real Estate issued a €134 mln loan to finance Starwood Capital’s acquisition of Las Mercedes in Madrid, a nine-building office park close to Barajas airport in the east of the city.
The Asturias deal represents Allianz Real Estate’s first financing transaction with ECE Real Estate Partners and strengthens the established partnership with the ECE Group: ECE manages five shopping centres across Europe on behalf of Allianz Real Estate.
German retail specialist ECE bought the mall last month from a 50/50 joint venture of struggling UK retail landlord Intu and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for a price of €290 mln. Intu Asturias offers 74,000 m2 of lettable space, boasts a 99% occupancy with strong anchor tenants, and has benefitted from continuous turnover and footfall growth over the last few years.
'We are delighted to build on our relationships with ECE and Starwood Capital with these financing transactions, which perfectly reflect our debt strategy – prime sponsors and top assets,' said Roland Fuchs, head of European Debt, Allianz Real Estate. '2019 was a successful year for Allianz Real Estate’s European debt business and, in particular, for our debt fund. We’re pleased to be building further on that momentum at the start of 2020 with several prime transactions. Going forward, our debt strategy will continue to be built around the prime approach as the foundation of the disciplined growth of our portfolio.'
Launched in mid-2018 to simplify access to European real estate debt investments for Allianz group insurers and third-party investors, Allianz Real Estate’s Luxembourg-based debt fund now has close to €3 bn in assets under management.
