Portuguese developer Sonae Imobiliria has signed an agreement with German lender Westdeutsche ImmobilienBank to set up a joint venture company, Sonae West Shopping.
The company will specialise in shopping centre and leisure developments in Germany. Sonae will hold 80.1% of the shares and Westdeutsche ImmobilienHoldings the remaining 19.9%. The transaction is still subject to regulatory approval.
For Sonae, the joint venture is another step in its strategy to become a significant player in the pan-European retail market. The agreement includes the transfer of the specialist retail team of Westdeutsche ImmobilienHoldings to the new company, which will be based in Dusseldorf.
Sonae West Shopping will start operations immediately and is expected to achieve a turnover of more than Û3.5m in 2000. The company is already working on a number of projects with Sonae Germany and WIB as the main equity investors. Debt finance is to be arranged by WIB. The International Financial Corporation of Philadelphia, US, acted as financial adviser to Sonae.
The Sonae group is Portugal’s leading shopping centre developer, investor and manager. Over the past nine years the company has opened one shopping centre per year. Currently the portfolio under management includes centres in Portugal, Spain and Brazil.
