Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Metro AG Enters $696 Million Sale Leaseback of 16 Hypermarkets in Poland

Bloomberg.com - July 18, 2006

GE Real Estate Central Europe, a unit of the world's second-largest company, bought 16 hypermarkets from Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA for 555 million euros ($696 million) to more than double its retail assets in Poland.

GE Real Estate will lease the 319,000 square meters of space for 10 years to Metro AG, Germany's largest retailer, which yesterday bought Casino's Polish retail chain for 224 million euros, GE said in an e-mailed statement received late yesterday.
Real estate investors are targeting central and eastern Europe, where property is cheaper and potential returns are higher than in more mature European markets such as France and Germany.

Casino, France's fifth-largest supermarket chain, which operates under the Monoprix and Spar names, yesterday also sold its Leader Price supermarket chain in Poland to Tesco Plc, the U.K.'s largest food retailer, for 105 million euros.

Casino has retained some other real estate assets, valued at 130 million euros, which it plans to sell separately. It sold its Polish assets to reduce debt. Sphere: Related Content

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