French banking group BNP Paribas has sold its remaining 6.5% stake in European listed retail specialist Klépierre by the way of an accelerated private placement to institutional investors.
French banking group BNP Paribas has sold its remaining 6.5% stake in European listed retail specialist Klépierre by the way of an accelerated private placement to institutional investors.
BNP Paribas has sold 20.5 million shares at a price of €40.50 per share, raising €829 mln from the sale.
'This transaction is part of BNP Paribas' active management of its equity investment portfolio. Following this transaction, BNP Paribas will have sold all of the Klepierre shares that it holds for its own account,' the bank said in a statement.
The private placement was led by BNP Paribas acting as sole coordinator and bookrunner while Credit Suisse and UBS Investment Bank will act as joint bookrunners.
BNP Paribas already sold a 6.5% stake in Klépierre in May in a private placement to institutional investors for a total of €870 mln.
US shopping centre group Simon Property, Klépierre's largest shareholder with an 18.3% interest, participated in the placement with the acquisition of an additional 2%, bringing its total stake in Klépierre to 20.3%.
The bank sold the stake at €39.60 a share, or 4.5% below the closing price before the placement.
Klépierre is Europe's second largest listed shopping centre owner after the takeover earlier this year of Dutch peer Corio. Simon, the biggest shopping centre owner in the US, became Klépierre's largest investor in 2012 with the acquisition of 54.5 million shares, almost a 29% stake, from BNP Paribas, which was pressured by new Basel III regulations to strengthen its capital ratio.
The bank is Klépierre’s historic shareholder which founded the business in 1990 and kept a controlling stake for the past two decades.
