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Ireland’s biggest mall is close to being sold, while another of Dublin’s largest shopping centres has agreed on a refinancing deal as the country’s retail sector continues to attract more investment interest.
Opportunistic investor Strategic Value Partners has agreed to acquire Blanchardstown Centre, Ireland's largest shopping centre, from Goldman Sachs, according to the Irish Independent.
However, Goldman reportedly has failed to achieve the original asking price of between €650M and €725M when the U.S. investment bank first offered the property for sale last summer. Eastdil Secured and CBRE are handling the sale.
In April, U.S.-based Northwood Investors emerged as an early leader in a six-way race to acquire the Blanchardstown Centre, with a first-round offer understood to be in the region of €580M, a slight premium on the €550M predicted by analysts. Strategic Value Partners came in a few months later with a bid between €550M and €600M, according to The Irish Times.
The 1.1M SF Blanchardstown Centre consists of more than 180 shops and is anchored by retailers such as Dunnes Stores, Penneys, Aldi, Hollister, Mango, Marks & Spencer, a nine-screen Odeon cinema, two external retail parks, external retail units and eBay's headquarters.
Other first-round bidders for Blanchardstown were UBS, Hines, Marlet Property Group, a subsidiary of Starwood Capital and investment and property development company Sretaw, which last year completed retail acquisitions from Iput for Victoria’s Secret’s Grafton Street flagship store and the Lower Baggot Street Tesco store for €28M and €12M, respectively.
Despite attracting 16 million people annually and with a catchment of 1.9 million people, the third sale of Blanchardstown Centre in around eight years has seen its value fall steeply. Blackstone paid €950M for the property in 2016 before divesting to Goldman Sachs in late 2020 for around €750M.
Greenwich, Connecticut-headquartered SVP has operated from London since 2004 and has more than $18B of assets under management. Earlier this year, SVP said it had raised about $2.65B of a targeted $3.75B for its Strategic Value Capital Solutions II fund and said it planned to invest about half the fund in Europe and outside the U.S.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, UK-based shopping centre giant Hammerson and joint venture partner Allianz secured a €350M loan for Dundrum Town Centre with a term loan of up to seven years from lenders Rothesay, BNP Paribas and Deka.
Hammerson and Allianz funded an equally split total of €220M from existing cash in the JV and new equity, which together with the new facility will be used to refinance the existing net €570M facility maturing in September, the companies said in a stock exchange announcement. The new term loan is repayable by September 2031 at an interest cost expected to be circa 5.5%.
Hammerson and Allianz purchased Dundrum in 2016. The 1.4M SF shopping centre is one of Ireland’s most popular destinations and has an annual footfall of about 15.1 million.
Dundrum includes more than 150 retail and food and beverage brands, a 12-screen cinema and 3,400 car park spaces. It is 95% occupied and generates total annual passing rent of circa €62M.
Eastdil acted as lead arranger, and Pimco Prime Real Estate acted on behalf of Allianz and Hammerson's 50-50 joint venture to arrange refinancing for Dundrum. Rothesay, BNP Paribas and Deka acted as mandated lead arrangers, bookrunners and lenders.
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