Sonae Sierra is seeking over €300 mln for three Portuguese shopping centres in a move aimed at taking advantage of the strong trading momentum in the country.
The Portuguese shopping centre owner is said to be selling GaiaShopping and ArrabidaShopping, both in Porto, through broker JLL for a price in the region of €250 mln.
GaiaShopping provides nearly 60,000 m2 of retail space across 150 shops. The mall is owned jointly by two Sierra funds. ArrabidaShopping offers over 60,000 m2 over 189 shops and was last refurbished in 2008. It is also owned on a 50-50 basis by the Sierra fund and the Sierra Portugal fund.
Sonae is also looking for a new owner for a smaller retail asset on the island of Madeira. The 27,000 m2 shopping centre opened in March 2001 and provides 98 stores. The asset is half owned by the Sierra fund with the remaining 50% share currently held by local businessman Estevão Neves.
Also on Madeira, local private equity firm ECS Capital is seeking bids for its La Vie Funchal shopping centre. The 16,000 m2 property is expected to fetch around €60 mln in a sale process run by CBRE.
Offices on sale
On the Portuguese mainland, ECS Capital is also seeking to sell the brand-new Fontes Pereira de Melo office scheme in central Lisbon. The 22,500 m2 asset is being sold through CBRE with an asking price of over €100 mln, according to sources. The office complex, which is due for completion by year-end, has been majority let to law firm PLMJ and consulting group KPMG. It is currently in the due diligence phase.
Also in Lisbon, Portuguese lender Banco Comercial Portugues is believed to be selling a 5,000 m2 central office building in Lisbon to hotel operator Sana while state-owned Caixa Geral de Depositos is seeking €60 mln for an old office block of nearly 14,000 m2 in the city centre. The asset will be sold largely vacant for redevelopment to other uses. Agent C&W is advising on the sale.
‘We are currently quoting prime yields at 4.5% on offices but we have evidence of levels well below that,’ said a broker who wishes to remain anonymous. ‘This has been a record investment year so far for Portugal and there are no signs of the market slowing down.’ Portuguese commercial real estate investment volumes are expected to exceed €3 bn this year, one third more than 2017, which was already a record breaking period.
The year has already seen two of the largest portfolio transactions ever closed in the country. In the office sector, private equity firm Kildare Partners inked the acquisition in late June of the Lagoas Park office campus from construction group Teixeira Duarte for €375 mln. Earlier in 2018, Spanish REIT Merlin Properties along with other investors also acquired the entire Rio Tejo portfolio for around €850 mln, in the largest-ever portfolio transaction in Portugal.
The market is expected to report another major transaction shortly, with Apollo Global Management poised to complete the acquisition of a residential-led portfolio of 277 properties from Portuguese insurance company Fidelidade for €425 mln.
