Tristan confirms entry into Italian market with €122m retail buy

Tristan Capital Partners has confirmed the €122 mln acquisition of a portfolio of four retail assets in its first major foray into the Italian property market.

PropertyEU reported in April that the European asset manager was buying the neighbourhood shopping centres for its Episo 3 opportunity fund from listed retail developer-investor Altarea.

The deal - one of the largest retail acquisitions in Italy in the past 12 months - involves two shopping centres in Piedmont, Le Due Valli (21,500 m2) in Pinerolo, which opened in 2008 and is anchored by an Ipercoop hypermarket; and La Cittadella (17,500 m2) in Casale Monferrato, which opened in 2007 and is anchored by an Ipercoop hypermarket.

In addition, the European investor is also acquiring the Casetta Mattei retail asset in the southeast of Rome and the Ibleo shopping centre (26,000 m2) in Ragusa, on the island of Sicily.

The assets are all recently constructed and have an overall occupancy of 93%. Pradera will act as the asset manager for the portfolio.

After closing of the sale, Altarea will own only two shopping centres in Italy, both located in the Lombardy region. They are Le Due Torri in Stezzano, near Milan (42,000 m2) as well as the 52,000 m2 La Corte Lombarda in Bellinzago, also near Milan. The shopping centre specialist also owns a development project in Genoa, Ponte Parodi, which is due for completion in 2017-2018.

'Italy is firmly back on the radar screens of pan-European investors and Tristan has been looking to make our first major move in the market for some time,' said Cameron Spry, head of Investments at Tristan Capital. 'So when the chance arose in an off-market deal to acquire these good quality shopping centres at attractive yields and with solid cash flows, we seized the opportunity. Another draw for the acquisition was that we were able to secure attractive financing terms for the assets.'

Neil Varnham, managing director at Pradera, commented: 'We have been working with Tristan for five years and have acquired and manage eight retail warehouse parks on their behalf in the UK. We are extremely excited to assist them in this significant move into the Italian market, where we have been present since 2001, and strongly believe in its potential to deliver sound returns to investors.'