Unibail-Rodamco to set up separate development company

Unibail-Rodamco, Europe's largest listed real estate company, aims to set up a new company for its retail development activities in December, Chief Operating Officer Michael Dessolain said in an interview with PropertyEU at the Mapic retail fair in Cannes. The new company, whose name has not yet been disclosed, will be launched with a pipeline of 1.1 mln m² in retail projects including expansions and new developments, Dessolain added. Unibail-Rodamco is targeting annual double-digit returns for the new development company.
All existing development projects will be transferred to the new vehicle, Dessolain said. Eleven of the projects are located in France, two in Spain and one in Sweden. New markets including the Netherlands are also being studied. Dessolain sees the retail development company expanding in due course into a pan-European concern with activities in a large number of European countries.
During the interview, Dessolain expressed extreme satisfaction with the takeover of Rodamco, saying that both companies were, as expected, complementary. Rodamco is traditionally an investor and only started developing in 2000. Unibail has been active as a developer for several decades and only started investing in the 1990s. The merged company has a portfolio of 95 shopping malls with a book value of EUR 24 bn, making it the largest retail developer-investor in Europe and the second largest in the world.
Dessolain added that Unibail-Rodamco believes that large shopping malls offer the best prospects in the coming years given new trends in the retail market .