French retail giant Carrefour has leaped into a top place in PropertyEU's overview of top investors in European real estate in Q1 after creating a new retail property vehicle and forking out €2.7 bn.

French retail giant Carrefour has leaped into a top place in PropertyEU's overview of top investors in European real estate in Q1 after creating a new retail property vehicle and forking out €2.7 bn.

Eight investment groups including Carrefour and German landlord Deutsche Annington chalked up volumes of more than €1 bn, according to PropertyEU Research's preliminary data of reported transactions.

The Carrefour JV and Deutsche Annington both topped €2 bn.

The vehicle established by Carrefour and eight institutional investors committed to acquiring two portfolios of Carrefour-operated assets for €2.7 bn. The transactions were signalled in Q1, with closing to come later. The largest of the two - the purchase of 127 retail galleries in France, Spain and Italy for almost €2 bn from French REIT Klépierre - was completed on 17 April.

In terms of completed deals, Deutsche Annington tops the ranking with a total spend of almost €2.4 on two portfolios. The largest acquisition was the 30,000-unit Vitus portfolio for €1.4 bn and the 11,500-unit DeWAG-Portfolio for €970 mln.

Paris-Texas revisited
Texan private equity firm Lone Star comes third in the list thanks to its €1.3 bn acquisition of the CMBS loan structure underlying the massive Coeur Défense office complex in Paris. The fourth biggest spender in Q1 was a partnership between the Saudi Olayan Group and Chelsfield Partners based in the UK. Like Lone Star, they targeted the Paris office market. Their partnership acquired nine properties in Paris, providing a total of 76,700 m2 of office space, from troubled Italian developer Risanamento for €1.2 bn.

As a result of a spate of deals in the UK during March LGP, the property arm of UK financial group Legal & General, came in just behind the Olayan/Chelsfield Partnership on €1.18 bn. On 6 March Legal & General Property (LGP) pulled off the second largest reported deal in the month by acquiring a 55-asset portfolio of bank units, offices and industrial sites in the UK from Telereal Trillium for €665 mln.

US private equity group Blackstone committed just over €1.1 bn to office and logistics property in four transactions across Germany, France and Italy. The largest was the acquisition of 17 logistics sites in France and Germany from French REIT Fonciere des Regions for €473 mln. Blackstone also acquired four office properties in the German city of Dusseldorf for €530 mln; a portfolio of five office and retail properties in Italy from AXA Real Estate's Immoselect fund for €350 mln, and three logistics facilities in Germany for €105 mln.

London-listed shopping centre owner Intu Properties and German listed Patrizia Immobilien round off the billion-euro spenders list. Intu took control of two malls in the UK and one in Northern Ireland from Westfield for €1.03 bn, while a consortium led by Patrizia completed the purchase of the Leo 1 office portfolio in the German state of Hesse for €1 bn.

German fund manager Deka Immobilien and Austrian listed investor-developer Immofinanz fall just outside the top group. Both committed €950 mln, based on reported volumes.

A round-up of the European real estate investment activity during Q1 appears in the May 2014 edition of PropertyEU Magazine.