Allianz in running for Swedish mall portfolio

The property arms of insurance groups Allianz and AMF as well as Finnish listed property firm Citycon are believed to be in the running for a portfolio of three neighbourhood shopping centres in Stockholm under offer from Centeni. Currently owned by Royal Bank of Scotland, Centeni is the former joint venture company established by UK private investment firm Boultbee and collapsed investment bank Lehman Brothers.

The financial structure of the portfolio came under pressure after Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in 2008. RBS first took over Lehman's 49% stake in the joint venture before buying out Boultbee to assume operational control of Centeni before the summer.

Well-informed market sources told PropertyEU that the company is in negotiations on the planned sale, but that none of the bidders has been selected yet as the preferred buyer. The sales price is believed to be around SEK 3.7-3.8 bn (EUR 415 mln), reflecting a yield under 5%. Citycon and Centeni declined to comment.

The assets include Fältöversten, Ringen and Västermalmsgallerian and are located in the suburbs of the Swedish capital. Tenzing has been commissioned to manage the sale.

On completion of the sale, the Centeni portfolio will comprise only the Skärholmen Centrum, a flagship 63,600 m² scheme which is expected to fetch as much as SEK 3 bn.

In November, Centeni sold a portfolio of five malls to Swedish property firm FastPartner for around EUR 50 mln, or a yield of 9.5%. The 70,000-m² retail package included the Älvsjö, Tensta, Rinkeby, Bredäng and Hässelby gård retail schemes. Another mall was sold in early 2011 to Citycon for EUR 23 mln.