Hammerson sells French retail park for €159m

UK REIT Hammerson has exchanged contracts to sell the Villebon 2 retail park to a consortium of French institutional investors for €159 mln.

Located in Villebon-sur-Yvette, in the south of the Paris region, the 47,500 m2 retail park was acquired by Hammerson in 2005.

The property is anchored by FNAC, Darty and Toys'R'Us and has a total of 46 tenants. The gross passing rent is €8.5 mln and the centre is 99% occupied. There are also 1,875 parking spaces.

'We continue to see good investor demand for well-positioned assets in France and are pleased to have capitalised on this demand to secure a price that is well ahead of the latest book value per end-June 2015,' said Hammerson CEO David Atkins.

Hammerson acquired the asset in 2005 for £104 mln (€150 mln). The transaction is expected to complete before the end of the first half of 2016.

The sale completes the first £200 mln tranche of disposals planned by Hammerson. 'We expect the next tranche of £300 mln of disposals to be completed as planned in the course of 2016,' Atkins added.

The proceeds will be used to partially finance the joint acquisition by Hammerson and Allianz of the Project Jewel portfolio of loans in Ireland for €1.85 bn last year. The loans are secured against a number of retail assets in Dublin, including the Dundrum Town Centre, the largest shopping and leisure destination in Ireland. That acquisition completed in October.