Core investors have agreed deals to sell large shopping centres in Paris and Spain.
Sofidy, a French asset manager owned by opportunistic investor Tikehau, announced this week that it has teamed up with shopping centre REIT Klépierre to acquire the 90,000 m2 O'Parinor shopping centre north east of Paris.
Sofidy is providing the majority of the equity - 75% - and although the vendors, Korean pension fund NPS and UK shopping centre REIT Hammerson, have not released the price, sources say it is circa €200 mln, a net initial yield close to 10%.
Lighthouse Properties, a Maltese-domiciled investor, led a deal to acquire a 68,000 m2 dominant regional shopping centre in Castellón de la Plana, north of Valencia (pictured). Lighthouse brought in South African property company Resilient Reit in a 50/50 special vehicle to buy the mall for €171 mln.
The vendor is DWS's Grundbesitz Europa fund which valued the asset last September 2023 at €143 mln.
There was another significant retail transaction closing this week, with Columbia Threadneedle buying Parkgate Shopping Park, one of the UK's top five retail parks by size. But as with a number of transactions closing currently, pricing was not disclosed and the deal is not listed in the data page for that reason. CBRE said in its 2024 European Market Outlook that lack of discovery in the prime segment is still muting demand for core acquisitions in the current market.
Pricing was not confirmed by the parties in this week's only closing transaction in central London, of Global Holding's acquisition of Vogue House in the West End. However, brokers believe it was at or near the £70 mln asking price and we have listed it.
The week's biggest transaction was UK-listed LXi Reit's sale to Travelodge for £210 mln of 66 hotels that the operator occupies. Also announced were the £1.9 bn terms of LXi's agreed merger with fellow UK REIT, LondonMetric.
In the logistics market, Clarion announced the £427 mln final close of its first UK-only fund. Meanwhile, in residential, the UK's Grosvenor unveiled a JV with Italy's Generali to originate loans in the sector.
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