Intu to sell Puerto Venecia shopping centre

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 23, 2019

Shopping malls giant Intu has announced the sale of the giant Intu Puerto Venecia shopping centre in Spain for €475.3 million.

The company is part-owner of the mall with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and they’ve exchanged contracts to sell it to Generali Shopping Centre Fund and Union Investment Real Estate. Intu’s share of the purchase price will be €237.7 million. 

The mall, in Zaragoza, “is the regional retail and leisure destination for the Aragon region” with annual footfall of 19 million. But despite its importance in the region, it falls into its recovery strategy of raising as much cash as it can as it works to fix its balance sheet.

The company said that after repaying asset-level debt, working capital adjustments and taxation, it will see net proceeds from the sale of around €115 million. It will use this to repay further debt with the transaction reducing its loan-to-value figure by around 1%.

The transaction is expected to complete early in 2020.

CEO Matthew Roberts said the company is also at “advanced stages of negotiations on the disposal of Intu Asturias in Northern Spain.

“As we announced at the interim results in July, our number one priority is fixing the balance sheet which includes creating liquidity through disposals. This transaction, which along with the part-disposal of Intu Derby and other sundry asset sales in 2019 brings the year to date disposals total to £479 million."