French SIIC Mercialys has announced that it has entered into exclusive negotiations to sell around EUR 100 mln worth of retail properties before the end of the year. The assets mostly consist of service malls, food stores, stand-alone restaurants, and co-ownership lots.
French SIIC Mercialys has announced that it has entered into exclusive negotiations to sell around EUR 100 mln worth of retail properties before the end of the year. The assets mostly consist of service malls, food stores, stand-alone restaurants, and co-ownership lots.
Based on the ongoing negotiations, disposals would be realised at an average capitalisation rate of roughly 6.5%, generating EUR 30 mln of net capital gains for the company. The transaction price of EUR 100 mln is in line with the assets' latest appraised value at end-June 2010 and represents around 4% of Mercialys' total real estate portfolio.
'This is another step in our strategy of value creation,' said CEO of Mercialy Jacques Ehrmann. 'Our job is to work on assets with value creation potential and develop them. Each year we should follow the discipline of identifying assets that have reached a satisfying stage of development and seize the opportunities to sell them to long-term financial investors and to replace them by more dynamic assets. Our job is not to pile assets but to extract their value.'
Mercialys focuses on commercial property and owns a portfolio valued at EUR 2.5 bn consisting of 168 properties.
