Chamartin set to enter Italy with 10 shopping centres

Chamartin, a property developer active in Spain, Portugal and Germany, is entering the Italian retail market with the launch of a new shopping centre unit, Chamartin SircoManagement Italial. The Italian subsidiary, a joint venture between Italian developer Sirco Real Estate and Chamartin, will be led by Fabrizio Lombardo Pijola, former president of Sircom RE. Chamartin Sirco Management Italia will be based in Bari, Southern Italy, and will have offices in Milan.

'We strongly believe in this new Mediterranean venture and we are already studying several projects, initially focused on Southern Italy, but with the intention to expand further to the North of the country. In September we will better define our portfolio of projects,' said Carlos Cutillas, chairman of Chamartín.

The company plans to open up to 10 Dolce Vita shopping centres in Italy in the next three years. In its 2008-2011 business plan, the company highlighted that it targets to have 30 Dolce Vita malls in Europe by 2011, with a total surface area of more than 900.000 m².

In line with its internationalisation strategy to put together a retail portfolio of EUR 2.5bn by 2011, from EUR 884mln at present, Chamartin said it plans to expand first in Italy, and then enter the Polish and Romanian retail markets. Chamartin's plans to invest EUR 1.5bn in the next three years. Some EUR 382mln will be inveted this year.

The group has currently a portfolio of some EUR 2.6bn, of which retail makes up for about 34%. The Portuguese company holds 15 shopping malls in the Iberian peninsula, of which 11 in Portugal. In Germany the company has operated since 2006 through the Meermann Group.