Intu's share in Madrid's Xanadu shopping centre is up for sale as part of administrator attempts to recoup liquidity from the failed UK-based REIT's holdings.
KPMG, which is overseeing the financial administration process, has appointed broker CBRE to find a buyer for Intu's 50% stake in the sizeable asset. Global asset manager Nuveen owns the other 50%, which it bought from Intu in 2017 after the UK firm acquired the whole property for €530 mln.
In its heyday, out-of-town centre Xanadu was feted as one of Europe's largest malls with over 222 shops, eateries, a 15-screen cinema and the Madrid SnowZone, a huge covered track used for skiing and snowboarding. The 120,168 m2 asset was developed in 2002 by US-based Mills Corporation, and later acquired by Ivanhoe Cambridge in 2006 when Mills ran into financial problems. Mills planned Xanadu as its first mall outside the US but it remained the company's only international venture.
Ivanhoe Cambridge offloaded the asset to Intu, which used a mix of bank financing and existing facilities to acquire the stake. According to company records, the asset is less heavily indebted than most of the company's other properties, carrying about £131.5 mln of debt maturing in 2022.
In recent years, experts says that Xanadu's decentralised location has caused investors to re-evaluate the asset's credentials. Intu also owns a 75% stake in a shopping centre development project in Spain, which its minority partner and project manager, Eurofund, is bidding to buy out.
In August, KPMG placed Intu's UK trophy asset The Trafford Centre in Manchester on the market. Considered the second biggest shopping centre in the country with around 280 stores across 185,000 m2 of retail space, it was last valued publicly by Intu at £1.7 bn (€1.4 bn). However, sources suggest its price tag will be slashed by at least 20% to around £1.3 bn in order to achieve a sale.
Intu currently owns and operates a total of 17 shopping centres across the UK and Spain including Intu Lakeside, Intu Merry Hill and Intu MetroCentre. The centres have continued to trade throughout insolvency proceedings.
Intu divested its other Spanish asset, Puerto Venecia, to Generali and Union Investment in May of this year for €475 mln.
