US private equity group Starwood and local partner and minority investor Vencom have sold a six-strong retail portfolio in Sweden to Trophi Fastighets, a company managed by Redito and owned by the Swedish pension fund AP3.
The transaction, which is expected to close in September 2016, is valued at SEK 3.1 bn (€330 mln).
It includes six retail parks and shopping gallerias - Arninge in Täby, Bäckebol in Göteborg, Boländerna in Uppsala, Jägersro in Malmö, Tunapark in Eskilstuna
and Weibullsholm in Landskrona. The properties were acquired by Starwood in November 2013 for its Starwood Distressed Opportunity Fund IX fund as part of a larger seven-asset retail portfolio from Kooperativa Forbundet Fastigheter (KF Fastigheter) for SEK 3.9 bn (€435 mln).
The deal represented Starwood's first acquisition in Sweden since the founding of the company in 1991.
SOF IX and Vencom continue to own one asset from the 205,000 m2 portfolio—Bromma Blocks in Stockholm.
'We are pleased that these retail assets have benefited from the steady growth of the Swedish economy and strong retail sales, as projected in our investment thesis,' said Richard Vaaje, vice president at Starwood Capital Group.
'During the years under our ownership, we have worked to actively develop these assets to create value,' added Johan A. Gustafsson, Chairman of Stockholm-based investor and asset manager Vencom. 'In particular, we focused on enhancing Arninge, where the municipality of Täby is currently processing a building permit of 18,000 m2, as well as Bäckebol, where we acquired a nearby asset of 30,000 m2 of land, which has been partially sold to the listed grocery store company ICA. We also created and initiated a plan for the redevelopment and repositioning of Jägersro Centre.'
Cushman & Wakefield, Mannheimer Swartling and PwC acted as advisors on the transaction.
