Albufeira Shopping and the Continente Shopping Centre in Portimão have been sold to Square Asset Management for an undisclosed sum. Both will continue to be managed by Sonae Sierra.The trade in shopping centre assets is brisk: on Monday, January 22, AXA Investment Managers announced that it had reached an agreement to buy Dolce Vita Tejo for €230 million.
Also, Immochan, a subsidiary of the Auchan group which owns the Jumbo supermarkets, notified competition authorities that would be acquiring three shopping centres from the Blackstone: Sintra Retail Park, Forum Sintra and Forum Montijo in a deal with €400 million.
Spain’s Merlin has bought the Forum Almada, also owned by US company, Blackstone.
Of the Algarve sales, Fernando Guedes de Oliveira, the head of Sonae Sierra, said the deal “reflects our ability to implement a strategy of proactive management of our real estate assets and confirms the market’s recognition of their quality.”
Pedro Coelho, CEO of Square Asset Management, said that “these acquisitions are part of a strategy of diversification of the fund’s exposures, thereby balancing its composition among the different asset classes.”
AlbufeiraShopping was the first commercial centre in Portugal to be managed by Sonae Sierra. The centre has 42 stores compared to 59 stores at Portimão’s Continente Shopping Centre.
