Intu sells Spanish mall for £405m

Shopping centre owner intu and joint venture partner Canada Pension Plan Investment Board have exchanged contracts to sell the 1.2m sq ft inu Puerto Venecia shopping centre in Spain to  Generali Shopping Centre Fund and Union Investment Real Estate for €475.3m (£405m). Intu’s share of the proceeds is €237.7m. Generali Real Estate chief executive Aldo Mazzocco said the acquisition was the first investment for its pan-European shopping centre fund, which has a “precise strategy of cherry-picking prime retail in Europe”. Head of investment management retail at Union Investment Real Estate Henrike Waldberg, added: “Puerto Venecia is a shopping area with a high leisure value and a correspondingly high attraction factor for the people in the Aragonia region. It is by far the leading shopping destination in this region and therefore fits perfectly with our investment strategy, which focuses on best performing shopping centres and well-structured retail parks.” The sale is part of intu’s stated strategy to fix its balance sheet and will deliver net proceeds to intu of around €115m after repaying asset-level debt, working capital adjustments and taxation. Intu said it would use the net proceeds to repay debt, with the transaction reducing its loan-to-value ratio by around 1%. Chief executive Matthew Roberts said: “As we announced at the interim results in July, our number one priority is fixing the balance sheet, which includes creating liquidity through disposals. This transaction, along with the part-disposal of intu Derby and other sundry asset sales in 2019, brings the year-to-date disposals total to £479m.” The REIT is also in discussions to sell its 812,000 sq ft intu Asturias in northern Spain.   To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@egi.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette