Listed Dutch property company NSI has sold its Large Scale Retail portfolio in a single transaction for €72.5 mln.
The identity of the buyer was not disclosed, but according to information filed with the Dutch land registry it is Retail Estates, a Belgian specialist in out-of-town shopping centres.
NSI, which is in the process of selling off its retail assets to become a pure office player, said the portfolio was sold at a €6.3 mln or 9% premium to the December 2016 book value.
Anne de Jong, CIO of NSI commented: ‘We are pleased to announce another successful transaction which brings further focus in NSI’s portfolio. Within five months of announcing the planned exit from the retail business, we have now sold 57% of our retail assets. We will continue our efforts to focus the portfolio further in the period ahead, although from here we expect primarily asset-by-asset deals. Furthermore, our retail team will continue to look for ways to maximise the value of the remaining assets.’
The annual net rental income on the portfolio sold was €4.9 mln and the EPRA NIY was 7.2% at the end of March 2017. The portfolio’s vacancy rate (EPRA definition) at the end of March was 5.4% below the 21.9% for the whole of NSI’s portfolio.
NSI’s exposure to offices following the deal is 84%, up from 66% in December 2016, with retail now down to 16% of the total portfolio.
In an interview with Belgian newspaper De Tijd, Retail Estates’ CEO Jan de Nys said he wanted to capitalise on the opportunities currently offered by the Dutch retail market, which is currently benefitting from high consumer confidence. The acquired properties are mainly large home furnishings centres, which have seen sales rise along with the boom in the housing market.
NSI was advised in this transaction by Cushman & Wakefield and law firm Loyens & Loeff.
The Large Scale Retail portfolio includes the following furniture megastores:
Novicenter Alphen aan de Rijn (around 10,000 m2)
Het Rietveld, Apeldoorn (around 24,000 m2)
Meubelplein 7, Leiderdorp (around 6,000 m2)
Mortiere, Middelburg (around 20,000 m2)
Oostplein, Roosendaal (around 10,000 m2)
Einsteinstraat, Veenendaal (around 20,000 m2)
Shift to offices
In April NSI announced it had sold 16 retail properties for a total value of €150.9 mln and acquired two office properties in Amsterdam for a combined value of €78.8 mln as part of its strategy of focussing on larger office properties in major cities in the Netherlands.
The 16 retail assets were sold to Dutch investor-manager Orange Capital Partners (OCP). NSI was advised on that transaction by Houthoff Buruma and Cushman & Wakefield. CBRE acted for Orange Capital Partners.
