Independent retail property specialist Redevco has sold its Turkish business to US private equity firm Blackstone as part of its retreat from emerging markets to focus more sharply on key markets in western and central Europe. The parties declined to disclose financial details, but PropertyEU puts the price at around EUR 220 mln.
Independent retail property specialist Redevco has sold its Turkish business to US private equity firm Blackstone as part of its retreat from emerging markets to focus more sharply on key markets in western and central Europe. The parties declined to disclose financial details, but PropertyEU puts the price at around EUR 220 mln.
The sale covers three shopping centres: the 53,000 m2 Gordion Shopping Centre in Ankara, the 33,000 m2 Erzurum Shopping Centre in Erzurum and the 19,000 m2 Magnesia Shopping Centre in Manisa. The first two were opened in 2009 and awarded BREEAM certificates with a ‘Very Good’ rating. Magnesia Shopping Centre opened to the public last week. The transaction also includes development land in Manisa and Edirne.
Amsterdam-based Redevco signed the agreement with affiliates of The Blackstone Group at the beginning of June. The US private equity firm said the deal marked the first of many retail property investments in Turkey.
Redevco said on Monday that the disposals are in line with the strategy announced at end-2011 of concentrating its activities on its key markets in Europe and ceasing its full development operations in emerging markets. Redevco plans to use the revenue from these divestments for new acquisitions and redevelopments in its key markets Belgium, Central Europe, France, Germany, Spain/Portugal, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the UK.
Redevco's CEO Andrew Vaughan outlined the merits of the sale: 'Our local management team have delivered very high-quality projects for us in Turkey and although this sale is in line with our new strategy it was also important to us that our Turkish team should be able to continue its operations in the future. We feel that its future has been secured by choosing Blackstone which has significant expansion plans in Turkey and will take on our team to continue growing the business.This will allow us to concentrate on our core markets as we set out earlier this year and we wish Blackstone every success withtheir future in the Turkish market.'
Ken Caplan, senior managing director and head of European real estate at Blackstone, commented: 'We are very excited about our first real estate investment in Turkey, and are thrilled to be working with the outstanding management team at Redevco. We see Turkey as a promising market for additional investment in the retail sector.'
Redevco was advised by Kempen & Co.
Redevco is a private real estate company which manages and develops one of the largest retail portfolios in Europe, currently valued at EUR 7.3 bn. Redevco is owned by Cofra Holding, a Swiss-based holding company.
