German retailer Metro AG is to sell its real estate holdings in the coming days, raising 3-4 billion euros in GermanyÂ's biggest property deal this year.
U.S. fund manager Blackstone, General Electric Co finance unit General Electric Capital and investment banks Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch were interested in acquiring the 357 sites. It is expected that a deal could be signed at the beginning of November.
Metro, which wants to retain use of the property through a sale-and-lease-back deal, would book an extraordinary gain of EUR 500-700 mln from the sale which it would use to balance losses at its investment unit Divaco.
(source: Handelsblatt)
