Spanish department store retailer El Corte Inglés has earmarked over a dozen of its stores for sale, including the flagship anchors of the Xanadu shopping centre in Madrid and the Francesc Macià shopping centre in Barcelona (pictured).
In total, the troubled retailer is understood to be putting some 14 stores on the market, according to local media reports, plus 16 plots of land, and 65 ancilliary assets ranging from flats to parking spaces. The assets comprise some 1.2 million m2.
Other department stores in the shop window are believed to include those in Málaga, Marineda City (A Coruña), Siete Palmas (Gran Canaria), Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), San Juan de Aznalfarache (Sevilla), Ademuz (Valencia), and Navarra, Independencia (Zaragoza).
The drive is part of a plan by the retailer to reduce debts of over €3.6 bn, around 50% of which are likely to be liquidated through property sales. In February, media reports said that New York-based investment firm KKR and UK firm Round Hill Capital were understood to be among the bidders for a 500,000 m2 logistics portfolio being marketed by the firm.
Since last July, the third largest shareholder in the Madrid-headquarted firm is the former Qatar prime minister, Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al Thani, after the sheikh upped his holdings to over 12%. Al Thani has proposed grouping the retailer's property assets in a REIT structure, and floating a minority stake of 49% on the stockmarket.
While the terms of Al Thani's 2015 entry into the company would allow him to demand an IPO, it is understood that the board would have to approve it, which appears unlikely at this stage.
Spanish property consultant Tinsa recently valued the retailers total property holdings at around €17 bn, with its department stores and hypermarkets worth the most, at nearly €15 bn.
