The English Court has decided to cancel the transfer of two of the jewels of its real estate portfolio: the Titania Tower and a store in Puerta del Sol, both in Madrid. The group of department stores, chaired by Marta Álvarez, has made this decision after the success of its plan to sell non-strategic real estate assets, launched this year and which is the largest to date, with more than a dozen properties sold.
El Corte Inglés entrusted advice to the big consultants: CBRE, JLL, Cushman & Wakefield, Colliers, Knight Frank, BNP Paribas Real Estate and Savills. The distribution company considers that the objectives set have been met and its expectations have been improved with the signed transfers, which have allowed it to enter around 500 million euros, as confirmed by sources from El Corte Inglés. For this reason, it has decided to cancel the sale of Titania and Puerta del Sol, despite being at an advanced stage and after receiving juicy offers.
In the case of the building known as Titania (officially Torre Azca), El Corte Inglés requested around 230 million to accept the sale. Sources familiar with the process indicate that it has obtained offers higher than that figure, of up to 240 million. In this operation, the broker in charge of the process has been CBRE.
This tower is located in the Azca area, sharing space with its Nuevos Ministerios shopping center. El Corte Inglés built that property on the site of the burned-down Windsor building. Currently, he leases it to audit and consulting firm EY.
Even more advanced was the sale of number 10 of Sun Gate to a family office of Mexican origin for 140 million, in a process entrusted to JLL as broker. Even with this very satisfactory price for the seller, according to sources familiar with the asset, El Corte Inglés has decided not to transfer it.
This store in the most commercial area of Madrid, on the corner of Calle Preciados, currently contains a four-story store in the sports section of El Corte Inglés.
The group considers the sales of the other non-strategic properties for which it has entered those 500 million a success. The most relevant operation was the one closed in October in which it transferred the Portal de l’Ángel store in Barcelona for around 200 million. This place in the most commercial street of Barcelona is also a sports store of the department store chain. The buyers of this property have been the funds Ares and Redevcoin a transaction advised by Cushman & Wakefield.
RFEF headquarters
As part of this sale process, the insurers Mapfre and Swiss Life acquired the property located at Calle Alberto Bosch 13, which was the former headquarters of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), from the department store chain in September. The asset, located in the Los Jerónimos neighborhood of Madrid a few meters from the El Retiro park, will be renovated by the new owners.
On the same dates, it sold the Serantes building in Azca for 11 million to Merlin Properties, a key location for the socimi, where it has the adjoining Sollube, currently under renovation. In this case, the broker was BNP Paribas Real Estate.
Another Socimi, Inbest, took over two former El Corte Inglés stores in Seville and Córdoba (with Knight Frank as advisor) for about 50 million. In Madrid, next to Puerta del Sol, the Cortina Koplowitz bought another store, specifically located on Calle Maestro Victoria, for around 12 million.
The Socimi Saint Croix acquired, for its part, two office buildings in Madrid, on Avenida de Cantabria and on Calle Santiago de Compostela for around 45 million.
In addition, the group has added other minor operations to this portfolio. On Arapiles street in Madrid, it came off a supermarket, in a transaction advised by Savills. In Malaga, he transferred the so-called Gaybo building, next to Vialia, for 12 million.
Department stores account for 86% of the value of its portfolio
Although the real estate portfolio of El Corte Inglés is made up of all kinds of assets, it is those in which its department stores and hypermarkets are located that account for most of its value. Specifically, 86%, according to the appraisals that JLL, Savills and Tinsa commissioned. The entire portfolio was valued at 16,076.9 million on February 28 of this year, that is, before the divestments signed during the year. Of that amount, some 13,800 million corresponded to its shopping centers, which in turn, represented 80% of the built area owned by the group, with 8.14 million square meters. The assets linked to offices were worth around 950 million, while another 700 corresponded to warehouses and logistics land, and 620 to other types of commercial premises.
Although the group decoupled this divestment plan from its debt reduction objectives, the 500 million received represent a significant injection of liquidity at a time of sharply rising money prices, due to the rise in rates. Its current debt is around 2,500 million, the lowest level in 15 years,
#Corte #Inglés #cancels #sale #Titania #Puerta #del #Sol #receiving #million #properties