French listed retail giant Klépierre is understood to be close to signing the acquisition of the Plenilunio shopping centre in Madrid for around €380-390 mln, PropertyEU has learned.

French listed retail giant Klépierre is understood to be close to signing the acquisition of the Plenilunio shopping centre in Madrid for around €380-390 mln, PropertyEU has learned.

According to well-informed market sources, Klépierre is in final negotiations to buy the 220,000 m2 mall from Orion Capital Managers, which had put it on the market for €400 mln in November last year to benefit from the recovery in the Spanish commercial property sector.

If successful, the deal would be the second major Spanish disposal by Orion in the past two months following the sale of Puerto Venecia in Zaragoza to listed UK investor Intu Properties. Puerto Venecia traded in December last year for €451 mln, or a net initial yield of 5%.

Orion bought Plenilunio in 2009 from Santander’s Banif fund for €235 mln - a 26% discount to the value of the asset at the end of the fourth quarter of 2009 (€320 mln). The 2009 deal reflected a yield of 7.5%, compared to slightly less than 5% for the current indicative price.

Located to the northeast of the Spanish capital, Plenilunio offers over 200 shops with tenants including Mango, Sfera, Okeysi and Primark. Cushman & Wakefield is advising Orion on the sale.

Orion and Klépierre declined to comment.

Klépierre already owns La Gavia shopping centre in Madrid, which turned in a strong performance over 2014. In total, the French group owned seven assets in Spain valued at €500 mln at year-end 2014, representing just 3.5% of its total portfolio. At 7.6%, the Spanish operations reported the highest increase in year-on-year retail sales.