US private equity group Blackstone has sold six shopping centres in the Europe since the start of 2017, and has over 20 more set to hit the market.
PropertyEU Research tracked €520 mln of European disposals, alongside and €2.2 bn of acquisitions by Blackstone's real estate business from 1 January to end-March.
On 27 March a joint venture of Blackstone and its Swedish investment manager partner, Areim, sold an office building in Gothenburg, Sweden's second-largest city, to listed company Atrium Ljungberg for €130 mln. The 37,000 m2 office property is leased to telecoms and networking specialist Ericsson.
The majority of the sell-side action, however, has centred on shopping centres. Four regional shopping centres in Poland were sold to listed company Echo Polska Properties for €166 mln, and the 14,600 m2 Parade shopping centre near The Hague in the Netherlands was sold to German fund manager Real IS for just over €53 mln. UK fund manager Frogmore purchased the Stratford Shopping Centre in London from Blackstone and Catalyst Capital for €168 mln.
Multi assets
The retail sector is likely to generate further big sales volumes for Blackstone as the year progresses. The firm is tapping into the huge investor demand for core assets in Germany by putting the Rhein-Ruhr Zentrum, one of the country's top-10 shopping centres, on the market for €300 mln, PropertyEU's sister publication EuroProperty reported earlier this year.
The sale of the 110,000 m2 centre is likely to draw strong competition, given that centres of this size come to the German market only rarely. European retail REITs such as Unibail-Rodamco and Klépierre and fund managers backed by global pension funds are among the likely buyers, according to the February edition of EuroProperty.
And in March, PropertyEU revealed that Blackstone's European retail platform, Multi Corporation, is selling its Dutch portfolio and a number of major shopping centres elsewhere in Europe. PropertyEU understands that 24 out of the total 130 centres in Multi's portfolio are on the market. It is not known whether a buyer or buyers have yet been found for any of the assets.
Logistics platform
There is also the potential for a huge disposal of logistics assets as Blackstone is said to be mulling the future of Logicor, its €12 bn European logistics platform. One option being considered is an IPO, while various heavyweight investors are also believed to want to snap up the platform and its 13.6 million m2 under management. The Financial Times reported recently that Asian players lead the pack of potential buyers.
The shortlist, according to sources consulted by the Financial Times, include global Logistic Properties, the largest warehouse group in Asia; sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation, and a joint venture of Singaporean SWF Temasek and its subsidiary Mapletree.
A sale of Logicor, should it eventuate, would be the largest ever in the European logistics sector, dwarfing the €2.4 bn acquisition by GIC, Singapore's other SWF, of P3 Logistic Parks last year.
