Investors appear to have skipped the summer holidays this year as PropertyEU recorded 50 European real estate transactions with volumes over €100 mln during July and August.

Investors appear to have skipped the summer holidays this year as PropertyEU recorded 50 European real estate transactions with volumes over €100 mln during July and August.

The top 10 transactions by volume were each above €400 mln and had an aggregate volume of €5.7 bn.

The largest deal involved the Carmila property unit of French retailer Carrefour acquiring a portfolio of six Carrefour-anchored shopping centres in France from Unibail-Rodamco for €931 mln. The deal has yet to be approved by the respective work councils of Carmila and Unibail-Rodamco, with finalisation expected in September.

For Carmila, the acquisition fits in with parent company Carrefour’s strategy to regain control of dominant Carrefour-anchored shopping centres across Europe. Carmila’s CEO Jacques Ehrmann told PropertyEU in May that the company planned to spend over €1 bn by 2018, largely to be deployed in France, Spain and Italy.

Illustrating the strength of the revival in Southern Europe the second largest deal by volume was the €740 mln acquisition by Merlin Properties of 880 bank branches and 5 buildings) located throughout Spain and leased in their entirety to BBVA.

Merlin Properties is one of the youngest in the first wave of Spanish real estate investment trusts or Socimi that have quickly established themselves as big spenders in their local market. The acquisition of the BBVA assets, held in the Tree Inversiones Inmobiliarias vehicle, was the largest in Spain so far this year. Merlin, however, has not been sated as it raised €1.25 bn in an IPO last June in the largest ever REIT listing in Europe.

BIGGEST BUYERS
A group led by US-based Goldman Sachs was the third largest investor by volume after Carmila (€931 mln); Merlin (€741 mln). In August it was announced that Goldman Sachs, Goldentree Asset Management and Avenue Capital are buying 144 UK hotel properties for €650 mln. The hotels are operated by Travelodge, the budget hotel chain that the investor group acquired two years ago.

See the October edition of PropertyEU for more on deal activity over the summer of 2014.