French supermarket group Casino has announced three major property deals which it says will take its property management strategy into a new phase, and generate EUR650m (US$928m) in cash in the current fiscal year.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
In the first deal, Casino will sell or transfer 255 urban and semi-urban superette and supermarket properties in France, deemed to be mature and not intended to be signficantly extended, to a new vehicle called AEW Immocommercial, which was one of the first five companies authorised by the French securities regulator (AMF) to operate as a property investment mutual fund (OPCI) on 11 October.
In addition, Casino is selling six hypermarket properties, seven supermarket properties and six warehouses in Reunion, owned by its subsidiary Vindemia, to another newly created property vehicle Immocio OPCI, the creation of which was also authorised by the AMF on 11 October. In turn, Casino has received a firm offer from the Generali Group to acquire the entire capital of Immocio and the underlying properties for EUR266m, including transfer taxes.
Vindemia would then lease back the assets from Immocio under nine-year commercial leases with a renewal option. Vindemia will continue to own the land and the car parks on the hypermarket sites and will, if appropriate, carry out property development in order to expand the stores or the shopping centres.
In a third third deal, Vindemia has offered to sell its shopping centre properties to Mercialys for an estimated EUR77m. Most of the purchase price will comprise newly-issued Mercialys shares, with around EUR10m being paid in cash.
Casino said all three transactions are in line with its policy of enhancing the value of its property assets, and will generate a total EUR650m in cash this year, before capital gains tax which will be paid in 2008.
However, all the deals are contingent on the municipal authorities concerned not exercising their right of first refusal on the properties, while the Mercialys transaction is subject to approval by the company’s shareholders at its general meeting.
Casino expects all three transactions to be completed before the end of the year.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalData
