KKR has increased its exposure to European real estate with the acquisition of a four-strong portfolio of shopping centres in France from listed property company Corio.
The New York-based private equity firm has purchased Les Quais d’Ivry in Ivry-sur-Seine, La Grande Porte in Montreuil, L’espace du Palais in Rouen and La Mayenne in Laval, according to a statement.
KKR completed the deal in a joint venture with asset manager Seefar, which will take over the management of the assets.
Guillaume Cassou, KKR’s Europe real estate head, said in the statement: “We have an ambitious strategy for this portfolio and intend to invest further in French retail assets.”
The transaction is one of four European deals in Europe that KKR’s real estate head Ralph Rosenberg said were under offer when he spoke to PERE earlier this year. The other three were deals in Spain, the UK, and the US. Rosenberg said a central theme across its investments was that the assets were considered non-strategic or non-core to the sellers ongoing strategy.
Eric Damiron, chief executive officer of Corio France, echoed this sentiment in the statement, saying: “These sales are part of the plan implemented by Corio in Europe to refocus on its core assets and to apply its strategy of ‘favourite meeting places’”.
The purchase of the French portfolio follows the firm’s final closing on its first dedicated property fund, KKR Real Estate Partners America (REPA) fund, at the end of last year. The vehicle, which corralled $1.2 billion of equity, has the ability to invest a quarter of that amount in European markets, although it is expected the firm will introduce a vehicle dedicated to property investments in the region in due course.
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