Intu continues disposals by offloading Spanish shopping centre

Shopping centre owner Intu has offloaded its  second Spanish shopping centre as it attempts to fix its balance sheet.

The company confirmed that a joint venture company through affiliates of Intu properties and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has exchanged contracts to sell Intu Asturias shopping centre to the ECE European Prime Shopping Centre Fund II for €290m (£245m) with Intu receiving €145m (£122m).

Intu Asturias is the regional retail and leisure destination for the Asturias region and has an annual footfall of over nine million.

The transaction forms part of company’s stated strategy of  fixing its balance sheet, with Intu adding the deal will deliver net proceeds to intu of around €85m (£71m) after repaying asset-level debt, working capital adjustments and taxation.

It said it will use the net proceeds to repay debt with the transaction reducing loan to value by around 1%. The transaction is expected to be completed next week.

This disposal follows the agreement for sale of intu Puerto Venecia for €475.3m (£401m).

Matthew Roberts, chief executive of Intu, said: “We are pleased to have successfully agreed our second disposal in Spain in the last month. Our number one priority is fixing the balance sheet which includes creating liquidity through disposals.

“This transaction, which along with the disposal of Intu Puerto Venecia, the part-disposal of intu Derby and other sundry asset sales brings our total disposals since the start of 2019 to nearly £600m.”