The real estate group british Intu has sold out to the insurance company Italian Generali the shopping center Puerto Venecia, Zaragoza, considered the largest complex of shopping and leisure of Spain, for a total of 475 million euros, as reported by the company in a press note. The british company also has for sale other resort in Asturias and will use the money to reduce debt.
As explained by the british group, along with his partner in the centre of zaragoza, the pension fund of canadian Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, have agreed to the sale of the property, which has 206.000 square meters in total, among them about 110,000 rentable in 203 local and an influx of some 19 million customers each year. The buyer is the fund Generali Shopping Centre, the armed wing of the insurance company for investment in trade centres, with the German fund of investment real estate Union Investment Real Estate.
Intu will pocket with the operation, which expects to see completed in the first half of 2020, 237,7 million euros. However, after the payment of debts, taxes and other adjustments, the group will be 115 million, ensures, that go to pay debt. The operation fits into the strategy of the british company to “strengthen its balance sheet” and reduce debt.
Also in this strategy is part of the sale of the shopping center Intu Asturias (Oviedo), that is “in advanced stages of negotiation”, as stated in the note Matthew Roberts, chief executive of Intu, which states that “the number one priority of the company is to strengthen the balance sheet, which includes generating liquidity through sales of assets. In fact, points out that thanks to the sale of the Port of Venice, the part of Intu Derby (in the Uk) and the other assets, Intu, one of the leading owners of shopping centers in the world, has pocketed this 2019 479 million pounds ($558 million euros).
