Europa Capital acquires Milan shopping centre for €82m

Europa Capital has acquired the retail gallery of the Galleria Borromea shopping centre in Milan with joint venture partner Franco Gardella for €81.6 mln.

Galleria Borromea is a new, purpose-built centre that opened in November 2011 and is located in the immediate suburbs of Milan. The centre comprises 27,700 m2 of gross lettable area including the retail gallery of 18,270 m2, and an IperCoop hypermarket.

The retail gallery provides 88 retail units and is anchored by MediaWorld and C&A.

'We are delighted to be investing again in the Italian market and to be working in a joint venture with Franco Gardella, acting as local partner,' commented Jason Oram, head of Southern Europe at Europa Capital, which is part of The Rockefeller Group.

He added: 'We believe that Galleria Borromea offers Europa Fund IV the opportunity to continue to enhance turnover performance of the asset, in a sector that is attracting increasing interest from domestic and international institutional investors.'

PrimoRE advised Europa Capital on the acquisition.

Europa Capital entered the Italian market in 2006 with the purchase of the headquarters of Alcatel Italia from the Italian subsidiary of the international telecommunications conglomerate for over €128 mln. More recently, the asset manager had been looking to re-enter the market with a shopping centre acquisition. It is believed to have looked at a number of properties over the past year, including the 8Gallery shopping centre in Turin's Lingotto district, in Northern Italy.