Carmila, the joint venture established by French retail group Carrefour with institutional money to own its key property assets, accounted for almost 22% of the volume of €100 mln-plus European retail real estate transactions reported during the first nine months of 2014.
Carmila, the joint venture established by French retail group Carrefour with institutional money to own its key property assets, accounted for almost 22% of the volume of €100 mln-plus European retail real estate transactions reported during the first nine months of 2014.
PropertyEU Research tracked 77 transactions of €100 mln and above with a total volume of €17 bn by 46 investment groups during the first three quarters of the year. Most of the total volume is attributable to the acquisition of shopping centres.
Carmila accounted for €3.7 bn - or 21.8% of the total 'big-ticket' volume - over three transactions. The two main transactions completed in time for the company to officially launch on 16 April as the owner of 171 shopping centres. In the largest deal Carmila acquired 126 properties in France, Spain and Italy from Klépierre for a market value of €2 bn. Carrefour contributed a further 45 sites in France with a market value of €700 mln.
Another €80 mln deal followed and during September Carmila signed a definitive agreement to acquire six Carrefour-anchored shopping centres in France from Unibail-Rodamco for €931 mln.
Carrefour will own 42% of Carmila, alongside a range of major international investors including Amundi, AXA, Blue Sky Group, BNP Paribas Cardif, Colony Capital, Crédit Agricole Assurances, Pimco and Sogecap.
FABULOUS FRENCH
French-based groups were the biggest spenders on European retail property in the first 9 months of 2014. Based on reported deals PropertyEU recorded a volume of just under €6 bn for French investors. It is important to bear in mind though that Carmila accounted for more than half of the French volume, and Carmila's backers include the Dutch Blue Sky pension investor, while Colony Capital and Pimco hail from the US.
Besides Carmila, the other top retail investors among the French contingent are listed companies Apsys (€700 mln) and Unibail-Rodamco (€576 mln) as well as AXA Real Estate (€638 mln); AEW Europe (€190 mln) and BNP Paribas REIM (€177 mln).
Listed developer-investor Apsys fronted another consortium that carried out a €700 mln deal to take control of the Beaugrenelle shopping centre in Paris. 'This is the largest single property transaction ever carried out in the French shopping centre market,' the vendor Gecina said at the time.
The other largest sources of retail property spend, according to our research, were the UK (€4.7 bn); the US (€1.7 bn); Germany (€1.2 bn) and Spain (€1.1 bn).
REITS REV UP
Spain's newly created real estate investment trusts (REITs or Socimi in Spanish) were behind the big retail deals in that market. Merlin listed on the stock exchange in June in a €1.29 bn IPO, the largest-ever by a REIT in Europe.
The company almost single-handedly accounted for the Spanish retail volume by acquiring 880 bank branches leased to Spanish bank BBVA for €740 mln and the Marineda City shopping and leisure complex in La Coruna for €260 mln. Lar España Real Estate, another new REIT, invested almost €150 mln in three retail property transactions.
PropertyEU Research tracked just under €3.9 bn of retail investment by Europe's listed sector over the first nine months of this year. Apart from Merlin, UK shopping centre REIT Intu Properties invested €1 bn to acquire control of three shopping centres from Australia's Westfield Group. The largest portion was €502 mln to acquire a 50% share of Merry Hill shopping centre near Birmingham.