Immofinanz, the Vienna and Warsaw-listed property landlord, has sold a portfolio of small retail assets in Austria as part of a wider refocus of its property holdings ahead of its planned merger with Austrian peer CA Immo.
An unnamed Austrian investor acquired the 88 properties that provide 108,000 m2 of leasable area across eight Austrian provinces. The investment volume was not disclosed.
The closing of the transaction will take place in several steps through the end of 2017.
The properties in question are part of a complex specialised portfolio that is tailored to the needs of a single major tenant, according to Immofinanz CEO Oliver Schumy. 'This sale represents a further step in our portfolio optimisation, which calls for a concentration on our STOP SHOP retail parks and our VIVO! shopping centress in the retail sector. Both brands have a high degree of standardisation which allows for fast and cost-efficient growth,' Schumy said.
He added that the reduction in rental income resulting from the sale would be almost entirely offset by the recently announced acquisition of eight STOP SHOPs in Hungary and Slovakia.
Immofinanz has been reorganising in recent years to focus on developing and owning offices and its Stop Shop and VIVO! retail brands in eight core markets: Austria, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary and Moscow. This strategy has led to the spin-off and listing of its residential business Buwog, and the sale of its logistics holdings to Blackstone for €536 mln in February of this year.
The re-organisation is also an important step as Immofinanz prepares to merge with fellow Vienna-listed real estate company CA Immo. The sale of Immofinanz's assets in Russia, a precondition for the merger, has yet to be achieved.
