AXA Immoselect edges closer to selling €350m Italian portfolio

AXA Real Estate’s Immoselect open-ended fund in liquidation is close to selling its six properties in Italy, encompassing 250,000 m2 of commercial space.

AXA Real Estate has hired Cushman & Wakefield to divest the €350 mln worth of assets which include two shopping centres and two large major logistics properties.

According to Joachim Sandberg, head of C&W Italy, the assets have received a total of eight bids and the sale is currently in the due diligence phase.

The portfolio includes two shopping centres, the 39,000 m2 Brebemi at Strada statale 11 in Bergamo valued at €108 mln and the 16,000 m2 La scaglia in Civitavecchia worth some €24 mln. The logistics assets are the 103,000 m2 Tortona Logistic Centrum valued at €49 and a 41,000 m2 industrial asset at Via Canapi in Oleggio valued at €15 mln.

The other assets are the 26,000 m2 Nhow hotel at Via Tortona 35 in Milan, which is operated by Hauptmie with a contract running through 2021, and was last valued at €47 mln; and a 32,700 m2 office building at viale Parco dei Medici in Rome, last valued at €91 mln.

The properties are likely to sold at a discount to their latest appraised value, similarly to recent transactions completed by the fund across Europe.

Last month, AXA Immoselect divested the Perspective Defénse office scheme to the north of Paris for a bargain price. The sales price of €126.5 mln represented a 21% discount to the asset’s appraised market value per end-April 2013, and a discount of nearly 30% to the asset's value only a year before.

AXA Immoselect had bought the asset in May 2008 from a joint venture of developer Altarea Cogedim and AXA for €170 mln.

AXA announced in late 2011 that it planned to liquidate its frozen €2.5 bn Immoselect fund. Earlier this year, the fund sold a portfolio of Dutch secondary properties for €140 mln, a 40% discount to the most recent independent valuation.

The portfolio includes the headquarters of Dutch fashion company Mexx in Amsterdam, a 27,000 m2 office property in Arnhem and a 19,000 m2 office complex in Rotterdam.

Also in the autumn, AXA Immoselect sold the Grafenberger Höfe building in Dusseldorf for €30.5 mln, representing a 21% discount to the asset’s most recent market value. The property was valued at €42.5 mln at end April 2012.