Ares Management, the Los Angeles-based alternative investment manager, and Redevco, the pan-European real estate investment management firm, have sold a portfolio containing nine retail parks for €193 million, on behalf of a joint venture that the two firms manage.
The nine assets, which total 1.2 million square feet of space, are located in cities such as Madrid, Granada, Huelva and Merida. At present, the portfolio is 97 percent occupied and leased to 72 different tenants including Mercadona, Aldi, C&A and Burger King.
The joint venture, which operates as Redevco Iberian Ventures, was created in September 2015 to target €500 million of value-add and opportunistic retail investments in Spain and Portugal. It made its first purchase in April last year when it bought a portfolio of six retail assets in south and western Spain for €95 million. The seller was Bogaris, a Spanish property developer.
All six of these properties, plus three additional assets, were included in the portfolio sold by the joint venture today for €193 million. The portfolio was acquired by Vukile Property Fund, the Johannesburg-based retail property firm, through its Spanish real estate investment trust (REIT) Castellana Property.
“Ares invested in these retail parks at the early stages of the Spanish recovery,” said Bill Benjamin, partner of Ares Management and head of the Ares Real Estate Group. “This sale demonstrates the strength of our JV, which enabled us to quickly assemble and reposition a portfolio of critical mass for exit to an institutional buyer.”
“Our joint venture has taken these properties to the next level, cementing their dominance in their catchment areas so that they continue to attract shoppers and retailers,” said Andrew Vaughan, Redevco’s chief executive officer. “We identified a number of initiatives to enhance the operating performance of these assets, and we have worked closely with our tenants to modernize and improve the quality of the parks.”
Both Benjamin and Vaughan said the partnership was already looking at further acquisitions on the peninsula. However, the firms did provide any return indication on the sale.
Advising Redevco Iberian Ventures on the sale of the retail park portfolio were JLL and Dentons, while Vukile was advised by RPE, Grant Thornton, DokeiRE and Ashurst.
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