MAPIC: ATP takes 25% stake in ECE's Rosengårdcentret mall

Danish pension fund ATP has bought a 25% stake in the Rosengårdcentret shopping centre in the Danish city of Odense from ECE’s European Prime Shopping Centre Fund.

ATP Real Estate has held an indirect 6% stake in Rosengårdcentret since spring 2013 when the mall was acquired for €384 mln by the ECE fund in which ATP is a partner.

The latest deal - which would value ATP’s stake in the shopping centre at around €100 mln based on the price ECE paid for it - is not only the largest single property transaction ever in Denmark but also the largest transaction by the ECE fund to date.

ECE Projektmanagement, which took over the management company of the shopping centre, will continue to provide the property management services.

Rosengårdcentret is Denmark's second-largest shopping centre after Field's in Ørestad, Copenhagen, which comprises 115.000 m2. Fields is owned by Steen & Strøm, the Nordic arm of European shopping centre group Klépierre.

Rosengårdcentret (Rose Garden) comprises 160 shops on a leasable area of more than 100,000 m2 and about 3,000 free parking spaces. Around 7.5 million customers visit the centre every year.

Volker Kraft, managing partner of ECE Real Estate Partners, said: 'I am delighted that ATP joined us as a co-investor of Rosengårdcentret. This provides us with the opportunity to create synergies between ECE’s international shopping centre know-how and ATP’s long-standing experience on the national market and thus create further value at Rosengårdcentret. We are looking forward to a longstanding partnership with ATP both on the indirect and direct investment side.'

CEO Michael Nielsen of ATP Real Estate commented: 'For quite some time we have had an interest in Rosengårdcentret as it is a well-managed centre with considerable development potential. The centre is very much like one of our other shopping centres in Denmark, Aalborg Storcenter. Now we would like to contribute to the value increase of Rosengårdcentret with our positive experience from these two projects.'

The ECE European Prime Shopping Centre Fund manages €775.5 mln in equity commitments from global institutional investors. The fund concentrates on the acquisition of existing shopping centres with value-add potential across continental Europe.

Here's a link to more retail news from Mapic 2013