French retail giant Casino has acquired its own headquarters in Saint-Etienne for €66 mln seven years after selling it in a sale-and-leaseback worth over €86 mln.
French retail giant Casino has acquired its own headquarters in Saint-Etienne for €66 mln seven years after selling it in a sale-and-leaseback worth over €86 mln.
Casino confirmed to PropertyEU that it bought the asset from UK fund European Real Estate Investment Trust (EREIT), which acquired the property in 2006 from Casino.
The transaction price of €66 mln marks a discount of 23% to the the price paid in 2006 but represents a 1.9% premium to the asset's appraised value per year-end 2012.
The asset provides a total of 36,500 m2 of space over seven floors. Developed by BNP Paribas Real Estate, the complex is single let to Casino with a 10-year rental agreement.
EREIT said that the property was the largest in its portfolio. 'This sale is consistent with the strategy announced by the group to conduct an orderly disposal of its assets,' EREIT said in a statement.
EREIT, formerly known as Matrix European Real Estate Investment Trust, announced in 2011 that it was to sell off all of its property assets valued at €380 mln by 2013 as part of a strategic review of its business carried out with advice from Lazard. The London-listed investor said at the time that 'an orderly disposal programme' was the best option to deliver value to shareholders in view of the current market outlook.
The transaction has reduced EREIT's loan to value below the 65% threshold set by the Lloyds Banking Group senior debt facility.
