A joint venture of CBRE Investment Management’s ECF fund and Portus Retail Partners has announced the sale of Big Shopping Park in Copenhagen to M&G Real Estate.
Although the financial details were not disclosed, the vendors said that the sale represents one of the largest European single-asset retail transactions and for the Nordics region, it is the second largest single asset retail transaction to have closed since the beginning of the pandemic.
Opened in 2015, the 40,700 m2 shopping park is a hybrid between a retail park and shopping centre. With 24 tenants and fully occupied, the shopping park is anchored by two supermarkets and two large electronic stores. Big presents a diverse tenant mix also offering fashion, furniture/DIY stores, restaurants, cafes, a cinema, gym and indoor playground. The big-box scheme has remained opened throughout the pandemic, leading to a continued high volume of visitors despite restrictions.
‘As a convenience shopping destination, Big has proven to be resilient against the transitioning retail landscape. Even with the increase in online shopping and Covid, Big has increased occupancy over the past few years,’ commented Mark Kouters, fund manager for ECF, CBRE Investment Management. ‘We have completed our business plan for this asset, which was to improve the tenant mix, unlock reversion on ground floor units and increase occupancy levels. With a backdrop of strong investor appetite for Nordics retail, it is an appropriate time to exit, and we are very pleased to have achieved a positive sale for our investors.’
Simon Ellis, fund manager at M&G, said: ‘Retail parks have shown their resilience during the pandemic, faring particularly well against online shopping and playing a key role in fulfilling online orders. This deal reflects the attractive opportunities we are seeing to acquire high quality assets with solid performance track records at a healthy yield premium relative to other sectors.’
Portus Retail acted as operating partner to CBRE Investment Management and worked with Capital Investment as local manager. CBRE and Accura advised on the sale. M&G were advised by Bruun & Hjejle, Deloitte, WSP and Colliers.
Chris Gardener, managing director, EMEA Retail Investment, CBRE commented: 'Big is a critical part of the retail landscape within Copenhagen and provides M&G with a fully let retail asset with strong fundamentals. It is not surprising that this sale generated significant levels of interest and we expect this to continue within the retail park market moving into next year.'
