US private equity giant Lone Star has reportedly acquired the four-asset Dolce Vita shopping centre portfolio in Portugal for €500 mln.
US private equity giant Lone Star has reportedly acquired the four-asset Dolce Vita shopping centre portfolio in Portugal for €500 mln.
Spanish newspaper Expansión broke the news of the transaction, which was later confirmed by Portuguese newspaper Público citing market sources that Lone Star paid about €500 mln for the portfolio.
Neither Lone Star nor the vendor, Spanish real estate company Inmobiliaria Chamartín, have confirmed the deal or the investment volume.
The portfolio comprises Dolce Vita Porto, Dolce Vita Douro in Vila Real, Dolce Vita Coimbra and Dolce Vita Monumental in Lisbon. Chamartín acquired the assets from Group Amorim, headed by Portugal's richest person Américo Amorim, in 2006. But more recently Chamartín has been forced to shed assets to pay down its debt.
If confirmed, the deal would mark Lone Star's second big splash in the Portuguese market this year. In March the US group, acting for Lone Star Real Estate Fund III, acquired the company responsible for the development of the Vilamoura resort in the Algarve region of Portugal.
Although financial details for that deal were not disclosed, Lone Star said that the acquisition represented the 'largest real estate transaction in Portugal in 2015 and one of the most prominent since the start of the recent crisis'. Some market watchers put the price at just €200 mln.
Portugal's real estate investment market went into hibernation following the global financial crisis and the country's ensuing deep recession. Activity has, however, picked up strongly this year, with more than €742 mln invested in the second quarter alone, up 236% on the same period last year.
