Capital & Regional plc announced that its German joint venture has unconditionally exchanged contracts for the sale of its Lübeck property to clients of Invesco Real Estate for cash consideration of €47.9 million, which is in line with the 31 December 2013 valuation and represents a net initial yield of 6.5%.
The Plaza Center, Lübeck, is a 29,100 m² retail park, which is anchored by the Coop Hypermarket.
Completion is expected to take place within the next 10 days. Part of the proceeds of the sale will be used to repay debt of €35.1 million in the German joint venture and it is anticipated that approximately £4.0 million will be remitted to the Company. The sale reflects the Company’s stated strategy to realize value from its German portfolio over time, in order to focus on its core business of owning and managing dominant, in-town UK community shopping centres.
The marketing of a further tranche of seven assets with an aggregate valuation in excess of €100 million as at 31 December 2013 is also progressing well and has attracted encouraging interest from a wide range of domestic and international investors.
Hugh Scott-Barrett, Chief Executive of Capital & Regional, commented:
“The successful sale of Lübeck represents further progress in delivering our strategy to realise value from our non-core assets and reinvest in our UK shopping centre business.
“The strong interest already shown in the further tranche of assets being marketed gives us confidence of maintaining positive momentum and growing our UK business in the second half of 2014.”
Source: Capital & Regional
