CBRE Global Investors Sells European Shopping Portfolio for $1.4B
CBRE Global Investors has been very busy in Europe in recent months.
By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor
France—CBRE Global Investors has been very busy in Europe in recent months. At the start of July, the global real estate investment management firm successfully closed the sale of a large shopping center portfolio in France and Belgium.
According to CBRE, the portfolio was valued at €1.3 billion, or about $1.4 billion. CBRE Retail Property Fund France Belgium CV sold it to a partnership between a subsidiary of China Investment Corporation and affiliates of AEW Europe.
The portfolio consists of 10 shopping centers, two of which are located in Belgium, while the rest are in France. The two Belgium properties, Waasland and Wijnegem, are both located near the city of Antwerp. The eight French assets include Paris’ La Vache Noire and Toulon’s Mayol, as well as a retail park, a group of high street retail properties, and inner-city shopping centers.
CBRE started marketing the portfolio as of January and said that the ten properties attracted a lot of interest from investors. The company also said that, with the completion of this sale, the full wind down of the closed end fund originally launched in 2003 is now finished.
Morgan Stanley acted as sole financial advisor to CBRE Retail Property Fund France Belgium CV. White & Case, Loyens & Loeff, PWC, Allez and Associes and Fairway also acted as advisors on the transaction.
“The fund has delivered an exceptional performance for the limited partners. Active asset management and asset rotation has resulted in a total return well in excess of the target IRR of 9.5% to our clients over the 12 year lifetime of the fund. In total the fund acquired and sold 26 retail assets, of which many were refurbished or extended to create additional value,” Marc Reijnen, managing director of CBRE Global Investors, said.
