Helsinki-listed Citycon has agreed to sell five of its Finnish shopping centres to Cerberus Capital Management for approximately €167 mln.
Four of the centres - Espoontori, Tikkuri, Myllypuron Ostari and Martinlaakson Ostari - are located in the Helsinki area and one is in Jyväskylä. In total, they comprise around 61,000 m2 of gross leasable area. The sale follows the takeover of Norway's Sektor Gruppen in 2015 which prompted the company to prune its portfolio.
'This transaction is a natural step to refine our Nordic portfolio and to focus on larger grocery-anchored shopping centres in urban crosspoints. We will use the proceeds to fund our development pipeline and strengthen the balance sheet,' Citycon's CEO Marcel Kokkeel said in a press release.
The sales price is close to the latest IFRS fair value of the assets and will be adjusted according to the contract terms in connection with closing of the transaction, which is expected to take place in November.
Citycon said its outlook for 2017 regarding direct operating profit, EPRA earnings and EPRA EPS announced on 13 July 2017 would remain unchanged.
In addition to being the largest investor in European real estate loans, Cerberus has directly invested more than €5 bn in real estate properties across Europe, Lee Millstein, global head of real estate at Cerberus,' said. 'We are excited to expand our direct European real estate investing into the Finnish market with this acquisition. These multi-purpose properties in key, convenient areas, can serve as anchor properties for further development, and are well-positioned to benefit from solid growth in Finnish retail trade sales.'
JLL acted as Citycon's advisor in the transaction.
