Carrefour to Buy Shopping Malls From Klepierre for $2.75 Billion
Bloomberg News
Carrefour SA (CA), France's biggest retailer, agreed to buy 127 European shopping malls from Klepierre (LI) SA for about 2 billion euros ($2.75 billion), giving it more control of the sites around its hypermarkets.
The retailer will create a company combining the sites in France, Spain and Italy with its 45 shopping malls in France, Boulogne Billancourt, France-based Carrefour said today in a statement. The company will be financed through 1.8 billion euros in equity and 900 million euros in debt. The unit, in which Carrefour will have a 42 percent stake, will have a gross annual rental income of about 180 million, it said. Institutional investors will own the remainder.
After shelving a plan to spin off its property assets in 2011, Carrefour is investing in real estate as part of efforts to make its largest store format more attractive to consumers amid competition from shops in city centers and online. Third-quarter French hypermarket sales rose for the first time in more than two years as Carrefour's turnaround gathered pace.
Carrefour 'aims to recreate an ecosystem that integrates all the components of each commercial site for the benefit of its customers,' it said in the statement. 'Its success rests on the coordinated renovation, modernization and extension of its sites.'
Klepierre, Europe's second-largest publicly traded shopping-mall operator, said in July 2012 it planned to raise 1 billion euros from asset sales by the end of 2013 by disposing of offices to focus on malls. The real estate investment trust said in October it had completed or reached agreements to sell 900 million euros of assets since the plan was announced.
To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Roberts in Paris at aroberts36@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net
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