Rockspring Property Investment Managers, the London-based real estate fund manager, has sold a portfolio of Spanish retail assets to Grupo Lar, a Spanish REIT, for around €111 million.
The portfolio comprises 22 Eroski supermarkets together with a majority stake in Parque Comercial Abadia, a retail park near Toledo, in central Spain.
The supermarkets, which comprise both neighborhood grocery stores and edge-of-town standalone units, are located mainly in the Basque country and Majorca. They are let to Eroski for a minimum of 14 years and provide 287,000 square feet of lettable space.
Parque Comercial Abadia, one of the most established retail parks in Spain, comprises a total of 540,000 square feet of lettable space as well as 2,860 car park spaces. The 70 percent interest purchased by Grupo Lar is fully let, with anchor tenants including Decathlon, Media Markt and Alcampo.
A spokesman for Rockspring said it had acquired the assets in 2011, when few international investors were active in the Spanish real estate market following the global financial crisis.
John Thompson, director of Rockspring Iberia, did not disclose precise details but said the transaction delivered a “robust return” for the firm’s separate account client.
“Over the period since we acquired these properties, the Spanish real estate market has benefitted from an improving economic backdrop and increased investment, which combined with successfully implemented asset management initiatives, has driven capital values and in turn, the excellent performance achieved with these investments,” added Thompson.
The sale comes hot on the heels of another sale by Rockspring, publicized just last week. In a joint venture with ECE Real Estate Partners, a Hamburg-based real estate investment manager, Rockspring sold the Czech Republic’s largest mall, Olympia Shopping Centre, for €374 million. The firm bought the asset in 2011, acting on behalf of a separate account mandate, but used capital from its 2011-vintage ECE European Prime Shopping Centre fund.
Retail Partners Europe, Cushman & Wakefield and Hogan Lovells advised Rockspring on the Abadia transaction, while JLL and Eversheds Nicea were advisors on the Eroski portfolio.
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