PREF, a closed-ended fund in which British Land is a key investor, has announced that it has contracted to purchase three European retail parks with a combined value in excess of EUR 153 million.
PREF, a closed-ended fund in which British Land is a key investor, has announced that it has contracted to purchase three European retail parks with a combined value in excess of EUR 153 million.
In the first transaction, the fund gave a commitment to purchase Udine retail park project in north-east Italy by acquiring the entire share capital of OPIT Real Estate, the Italian company that owns and is developing the scheme. The park, due for completion for Christmas trade in 2007, will provide 31,480 m2 of prime retail accommodation. It will be anchored by a Carrefour hypermarket, and there will be another 14 retail units. The purchase price was EUR 107 mln, providing a net initial yield of 5.4%.
The second purchase is the 6,746 m2 Etoy retail park located 20 kilometres west of Lausanne. The park opened in the summer of 2002 and its main tenants include Maxi Toys, Natuzzi, Heytebs and Vetir. Finally, the fund is to purchase the Matran retail park, located 8 kilmetres from Fribourg and 32 kilometres from Bern. The property consists of two buildings with a total floor area of 12,137 m2. The tenants include Halle aux Chaussures, Casa, Heytens and Vetir. The freehold of both parks will be acquired through the purchase of two Swiss holding companies.
The Swiss purchases were made possible by amendments to PREF's articles to allow it to invest in the non-European region to 'benefit from the gap which exists between the cost of borrowing and property yields in the Swiss market'. Valentine Beresford, director of British Land Fund Management, said the fund has now committed or is to acquire over EUR 818 mln of prime real warehousing, spread across 19 schemes and providing about 400,000 m2 of accommodation.
