French REIT Gecina has become the 4th largest publicly quoted European property company following the completion of its takeover of peer Eurosic. As part of the operation, Eurosic divested €463 mln of non-core assets to former Eurosic shareholder Batipart Group.
The combined group has a portfolio valued at €19.5 bn and is the fourth largest listed property company in Continental Europe behind Unibail-Rodamco (2016: €40 bn); Vonovia (€27.1 bn) and Klépierre (€22.8 bn).
Foncière des Régions, another French REIT group, is just behind the new Gecina group with a portfolio of €19.3 bn at end-2016.
Gecina is also Europe's leading real estate group for offices, with €15.5 bn of assets focused on Paris and the Paris region.
The company announced on Wednesday that it had completed the acquisition of nearly 85% of Eurosic's capital, giving Gecina control of its peer. This included acquiring the 24% of Eurosic shares held by Batipart Group, a company founded by French real estate professional Charles Ruggieri.
Amicable takeover
The friendly takeover was first announced back in June this year.
Under the takeover agreement Eurosic's board resigned and has been replaced by a new management team headed by Gecina CEO Méka Brunel.
'The amicable takeover with Eurosic is moving forward perfectly in line with the initial schedule set and has already led to the creation of the undisputed market leader for office real estate in Europe,' Brunel said.
'The consolidated new combined structure will make it possible to continue building on and ramp up the success achieved by the two vehicles in the past few years, capitalising on a portfolio of high-quality offices in the Paris Region's best business sectors. We are looking ahead to the future with great confidence, based on the solid fundamentals of this new combined group,' she added.
The deal, which received regulatory approval earlier this month, is one of the largest in a series of completed and ongoing merger and acquisitions operations in the European real estate sector over the last two years.
Much of the action has been focused on France. Last year Eurosic beat Gecina in a tussle to take over €2.6 bn French REIT Foncière de Paris. French REIT Icade confirmed in July that it had reached an agreement to take over its smaller peer ANF Immobilier before the end of the year.
Asset sale
Eurosic is a listed real estate investment trust (SIIC) that managed a portfolio valued at over €8.1 bn at end-June 2017, primarily comprising offices, located in Paris, the Paris Region and major urban hubs across France.
Eurosic's new board finalised the sale of €463 mln of assets to Batipart Group. The sale related to interests in Eurosic Lagune, SNC Nature Hébergements 1, Eurosic Investment Spain Socimi and Eurosic Management Spain.
Nicolas Ruggieri, chairman of Batipart Immo Europe, commented: 'Batipart is proud to have contributed to the creation of an outstanding company that is now the benchmark for office real estate in France. For its part, the diversification assets will represent a basis for redeployment, with a pan-European investment horizon, focusing in particular on key areas for it such as healthcare and leisure.'
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Image: Gecina's 55 property in Paris
