French retail giant Carrefour's new property joint venture and listed property companies dominated the list of buyers big-ticket retail property transactions in the first quarter of 2013. Listed companies were also major sellers during the period.
French retail giant Carrefour's new property joint venture and listed property companies dominated the list of buyers big-ticket retail property transactions in the first quarter of 2013. Listed companies were also major sellers during the period.
PropertyEU Research recorded a total volume of almost €5 bn for the 20 transactions across a range of European markets in the period from 1 January to 21 March.
By far the largest share of the investment volume, accounting for more than half of the total volume, was the €2.7 bn invested by a joint venture between Carrefour and eight institutional investors. In the biggest of two deals, Carrefour's new unit bought a portfolio of 127 Carrefour-anchored retail galleries in France, Spain and Italy in a €2 bn deal. The package, which is owned by Klépierre (83%) and insurer CNP (17%), comprises small to medium-sized retail galleries which Klépierre initially acquired from Carrefour in 2000 and 2001. The second acquisition involved another 45 French malls with a value of €700 mln which Carrefour transferred to the new joint company. On completion of the deals, the new unit will own €2.7 bn of assets with over 800,000 m2 of retail space.
Europe's cash-rich listed property companies are also on both the buy and sell side. Another French-led consortium, this time by listed developer-investor Apsys, carried out a €700 mln deal to take control of the Beaugrenelle shopping centre in Paris. 'This is the largest single property transaction ever carried out in the French shopping centre market,' the vendor Gecina said.
In February, Unibail-Rodamco, the largest listed property company in Europe, acquired a half-share in the massive Centro Oberhausen shopping centre in Germany from developer Stadium. Under the deal, Unibail will own the scheme jointly with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), which in May 2011 bought a 50% stake in the €1.3 bn 'super-regional' centre for €270 mln. In the third week of March, London-listed Intu Properties bought malls in The Midlands, Derby and Northern Ireland worth £863 mln (€1.03 bn) from Westfield Group as the listed Australian mall operator continued to shed provincial UK assets to focus on bigger developments.
On the vendor side, French company Klépierre owned 87% of the portfolio of retail galleries sold to the Carrefour JV, while peer Gecina was the major shareholder in Beaugrenelle. Unibail-Rodamco, the French-Dutch group which is focusing its portfolio on large, dominant malls, sold a mid-sized asset in the Netherlands to Amsterdam-listed Wereldhave for just under €150 mln. Corio, another Dutch listed player with a similar strategy as Unibail-Rodamco, divested 10 mid-sized smalls in the Netherlands and one in France for a total of €213 mln. UK listed companies Land Securities, British Land and Hammerson also sold assets during the review period.
One of the stand-out transactions by non-listed players involved UK investor Resolution Property and German shopping centre specialist ECE acquiring Poznan City Center mall, part of the regeneration scheme at the main train station in the Polish city of Poznan. PropertyEU has learned that the investment volume was around €250 mln.
Another feature of retail property market during the review period was the spread of investment into recovering markets such as Ireland and Southern Europe.
Click on the links below for the Top-20 retail property deals from 1 January to 21 March 2014 and more on retail property investment in recovering markets. Also see the April 2014 edition of PropertyEU Magazine for more on Poznan City Center and recent retail property deals.