Italian REIT IGD, based in Bologna, has bought four retail assets in Northern Italy from Eurocommercial Properties Group for €187 mln.
The schemes, which include four shopping galleries and a retail park, comprise around 37,500 m2 of leasable area and are part of larger shopping areas with an aggregate total leasable area of 91,000 m2. Together they register over 14 million visitors per year and an annual net operating income of €12.5 mln.
The assets are the Centro Commerciale Leonardo (Imola); Centro Commerciale Lame (Bologna); Centro Commerciale and retail park La Favorita (Mantua); and CentroLuna (Sarzana).
'The acquisition of the properties from ECP represents a further step to progress our value-creation path,' said Claudio Albertini, IGD’s CEO. 'We know these assets well, having managed two of them over the past few years on behalf of ECP and wtih the other two located within or close to our core territories.
'Furthermore, all of the properties are anchored by Coop, our partner with whom we develop long-standing operational synergies. We are confident to be able to deliver new value for our shareholders through the deployment of our proven skills also on this portfolio.'
To fund the acquisition and reduce company debt, IGD also announced a capital increase to be carried out via a pre-emptive rights issue offered to existing shareholders, with a value of up to €150 mln.
'The capital increase, which will be subscribed by our main shareholder for its portion, will allow us to maintain a balanced financial structure, in line with the investment grade profile of the company,' added Albertini.
'We do believe that the capital markets are currently particularly favourable thanks to the significant inflows of liquidity, the historic low level of yields and the renewed interest of international investors for Italy as a result of the improving macroeconomics fundamentals of the country.'
IGD said that the portfolio acqisition would enable it to further consolidate its leadership in the management of locally dominant shopping centres in mid-sized Italian cities with high spending power.
