The real estate group Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) has reduced its stake in the Westfield Forum des Halles.
On Monday, the company announced that it had sold 15 percent of the shares in the shopping center in central Paris to CDC Investissementimmobilienr, a company belonging to the French state finance house Caisse des Dépôts. URW estimated the net proceeds of the transaction at 235 million euros.
With the sale, URW is no longer the majority owner of the Westfield Forum des Halles, which houses 134 stores on an area of 77,600 square meters. In the future, the property will belong to a joint venture in which URW has a 50 percent stake, according to a statement. 35 percent of the shares are managed by the investment company AXA IM Alts, the remaining 15 percent is held by CDC Investissement Immobilienr. However, URW will continue to manage the shopping center and consolidate it into its own balance sheet, the company said.
URW is negotiating further share sales
The transaction is “an important milestone in the investment market for flagship shopping centers” and shows that the Westfield Forum des Halles is “one of the most attractive and successful retail properties on the European market,” explained URW.
According to its own information, the real estate company has been able to realize sales totaling 1.5 billion euros since the beginning of last year and thus reduce its net debt accordingly. As part of the debt relief strategy, “active negotiations” about further sales are already underway, explained URW. This is also about “joint ventures with proven institutional partners that allow URW to retain control of its flagship properties and at the same time generate administrative and management income.”