Tristan Capital Partners' Episo 4 value-add/opportunity style fund has agreed to purchase a 15-asset portfolio of neighbourhood shopping centres and strips of shops in the Netherlands from insurance group Delta Lloyd for €273 mln.
Tristan Capital Partners' Episo 4 value-add/opportunity style fund has agreed to purchase a 15-asset portfolio of neighbourhood shopping centres and strips of shops in the Netherlands from insurance group Delta Lloyd for €273 mln.
Sectie5 Investments based in Amsterdam has co-invested alongside Episo 4 and will act as local operating partner in advising the joint venture on asset management and other repositioning initiatives.
'This is the second investment in the Netherlands made by the fund in the space of six months,' said Ali Otmar, managing director Investments at Tristan Capital Partners. 'Well-located retail assets like these will benefit as consumer confidence improves, a theme that we have pursued already in Germany and the UK. This portfolio combines a solid convenience-focused tenant base serving good catchments areas with plenty of asset management opportunities.'
The 15 properties acquired by Episo 4 are mainly located in the Randstad, the central conurbation of the Netherlands that includes the cities of Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht. The shopping centres offer a total of 120,400 m2 of space that is occupied by tenants including major retail brands Ahold, Jumbo, Action, Hema and Blokker. All of the larger shopping centres in the portfolio are anchored by one or two supermarkets.
The properties are located in Amstelveen, Beverwijk, Diemen, Geleen, Gorinchem, Hilversum, Lelystad, Maastricht, Ridderkerk (2), Rijswijk, Uithoorn, Utrecht and Zeist (2). Ten of the assets in the portfolio are predominantly convenience-based shopping centres while five assets comprise strips of high street shops in smaller cities.
The purchase, which is scheduled for completion before the end of the year, follows Episo 4’s €212 mln purchase with Timeless Investments of a mixed portfolio of 39 Dutch assets from Generali in September.
EPISO 4 and Sectie5 Investments were advised by Houthoff Buruma, Cushman & Wakefield and PWC on the legal, commercial and tax aspects of the transaction.
