US-based investment group Apollo Global Management has acquired 32 hypermarkets and supermarkets from French grocery group Casino for €470 mln.
The portfolio includes 12 Géant Casino hypermarkets and 20 Monoprix and Casino supermarket properties.
Located primarily outside Paris, the 32 properties generate €26.6 mln in annual rent, including €14.2 mln from hypermarket assets and €12.4 mln from Monoprix and supermarket assets and offer an estimated yield of 5.3% including transfer costs.
Nearly 80% of the value of the assets after deduction of registration fees, €374 mln, is to be paid to the Casino Group at the closing of the proposed transaction, expected in July 2019.
Apollo has created a special purpose vehicle to purchase the properties in order to enhance the portfolio's value and ultimately sell it on, the fund said. Casino will receive an interest in this new entity, allowing it to benefit from the value created in the portfolio.
The French group said it could receive up to an additional €110 mln in the next few years.
The transaction is subject to the provision of financing, the terms of which have been agreed in principle.
The operation is part of an additional series of planned non-core disposals, worth €1 bn, which Casino said it would complete by Q1 2020. The deal raises the supermarket group's total non-core asset disposal plan to €2.5 bn.
