Listed European retail property fund Vastned has sold €160 mln of Spanish malls for 29% below their last appraisal value as of 31 December 2013.
Listed European retail property fund Vastned has sold €160 mln of Spanish malls for 29% below their last appraisal value as of 31 December 2013.
The buying consortium includes US hedge fund The Baupost Group, GreenOak Real Estate and Spain’s Grupo Lar.
The all-cash price reflects Vastned’s plans to shed its exposure to struggling Spanish shopping centres.
Vastned CEO Taco de Groot said the malls have, ‘had a highly negative impact on the value developments in the total property portfolio. We believe the value of the portfolio would decrease further due to the unfavourable outlook, the significant capital requirement and continuing pressure on rental income’.
Vastned, which was advised on the deal by Cushman & Wakefield, plan to focus on high street shops, which will account for 85% of its €52 mln Spanish property portfolio once the sale is completed. This will give it a 100% occupancy rate.
'C&W's in-depth knowledge of the retail and capital markets arena across Europe, and specifically in Spain, was critical to us achieving our objective and successfully completing this game-changing transaction,' said De Groot.
Jan-Willem Bastijn, CEO of EMEA Capital Markets at C&W, added: 'The sale of Vastned's eight shopping centres in Spain was a highly complex transaction which enabled the vendor to successfully re-position its Spanish retail portfolio while providing the purchaser with a retail investment platform across Spain.'
He added: 'We expect to see continuing strong demand from investors who are clearly being attracted to Southern Europe by the high yields, market liquidity and scale and range of opportunities available with the added benefit of relatively transparent income.'
