Retail specialist Corio has a warchest of EUR 617 mln for a potential acquisition of part of Multi Corporation's portfolio. As announced earlier, Corio is interested in gaining a stronger foothold in the German market.

Retail specialist Corio has a warchest of EUR 617 mln for a potential acquisition of part of Multi Corporation's portfolio. As announced earlier, Corio is interested in gaining a stronger foothold in the German market.

A deadline has not yet been agreed, CEO Gerard Groener said in an interview with PropertyEU. 'I am more interested in the quality of the negotiations than the speed.' The company is also investigating the financing possibilities of a potentail acquisition. The earliest it can go to the capital market to raise new funds is June.

Petercam analist Stephan van Weeren is upbeat on Corio's plans to boost its presence in Germany: 'We fancy this new home country as the German consumer market appears to be stable and the availability of shopping centre space per capita is below the European average.' Van Weeren believes the total acquisition sum could exceed EUR 900 mln, although this would probably require a new capital raise. He expects Corio to announce an intention to buy the Multi portfolio within the next two months.

Groener declined to give a forecast for the full year due to the ongoing talks with Multi, but stressed that Corio was not interested in acquiring part of Multi's Turkish portfolio. 'Corio is waiting for the right moment to do an acquisition in Turkey. We want to choose that moment well and now is not the time. The Turkish moment is still very volatile and the risks are great.'