Klépierre in talks with Carrefour on sale of galleries

Paris-listed shopping centre property specialist Klépierre has confirmed it is in talks with Carrefour on the possible sale of a portfolio of shopping galleries.

The company stressed that no agreement has been concluded to date between the parties. 'Klépierre will update the market in due course if it is justified by material developments in connection with the discussions,' the company said in a statement on Thursday.

The company issued the statement in response to a media report about the talks.

Klépierre CEO Laurent Morel re-iterated on Friday that this was just one of a number of potential asset sales.

He was speaking during a press tour to mark the first 12 months of operation of Emporia shopping centre in the Swedish city of Malmo. The event also included a tour of Fields shopping centre in the Danish capital of Copenhagen. Both centres were developed and are owned and managed by Scandinavian retail property group Steen & Strøm, which is in turn majority owned by Klépierre.

'We have been selling close to €1 bn worth of assets over the past two years and what we said yesterday is consistent with our strategy to dispose of assets in a massive way so we have the means to invest in such as assets as the two we are visiting (Emporia and Fields),' Morel said.

Morel said Klépierre's strategy is to concentrate its financial firepower and teams in the most promising areas in Europe 'where you have demographic growth, wealth, universities and trains' and not in other areas. 'It takes around €350-360 mln to build such an asset - it is highly capital intensive. For that, we need to dispose of assets on a very regular basis,' he said.

'We have a pipeline of €2.3 bn of new projects over the year in different European cities, so we sell massively one hand and we invest in new projects at the same pace,' Klépierre's CEO added.