ECE's Otto makes €240m expansion into Brazil

Alexander Otto, CEO of German retail developer ECE, has bought into listed mall company Sonae Sierra Brasil for €240 mln.

Otto bought a 50% share of a joint venture with Portugal's Sonae Sierra from US-based DDR Corp. The JV in turn owns 67% of the listed Sonae Sierra Brasil, one of the largest shopping centre companies in the country with 12 malls, mostly in São Paolo state. Its portfolio has more than 500,000 m2 of leasable area.

'With DDR we were able to develop one of the main shopping centre companies in Brazil and we strongly believe that the vision we share with Alexander Otto for the future of the company will allow our operation in Brazil to grow at a faster pace', said Fernando Guedes de Oliveira, CEO of Sonae Sierra.

'With the share purchase of Sonae Sierra Brasil, we can invest in South America for the first time,' said Otto. 'In a challenging market environment in the emerging markets we have the opportunity to bring our global expansion a big step forward.'

ECE is currently involved in 189 shopping centres in Europe, mostly on inner city sites. Otto has been CEO since 2000 and is the son of the company founder Werner Otto.