Grouppe Caisse d'Epargne, a network of French savings banks, has announced it intends to sell the German retail portfolio it acquired in 2005 through its Curzon/Iris property investment unit for a total of EUR 800 mln. Bids for the portfolio are expected to be received within days, the Financial Times Deutschland reported.

Grouppe Caisse d'Epargne, a network of French savings banks, has announced it intends to sell the German retail portfolio it acquired in 2005 through its Curzon/Iris property investment unit for a total of EUR 800 mln. Bids for the portfolio are expected to be received within days, the Financial Times Deutschland reported.

The sale will involve Grouppe Caisse d'Epargne disposing of 35 German Praktiker home-improvement stores acquired from Metro for EUR 450 mln, as well as 16 SinnLeffers stores it purchased from KastradtQuelle for EUR 200 mln.

The consortium of lenders is also planning to merge its Credit Foncier home loans unit with Nexity, the quoted real estate developer with a EUR 1.9 bn market capitalisation. According to an article in Le Monde, Caisse d'Epargne will hand over its Credit Foncier assets in return for a 30-40% stake in the new business.