We’ve talked about the kind of service we provide for our clients, and the advantages that working with us can offer. Talking is all well and good, but what about real evidence of the benefits? That’s what you’ll find in the case studies we present in the pages that follow – projects that demonstrate our strengths and the positive outcomes that resulted for our clients. These range from giving a German client access to our global contacts, to providing local market knowledge via our Finnish office for a project in Helsinki, and managing a complex project in multiple European markets for IKEA Centers.
Copenhagen, Denmark
LOT SIZE: APPROX. €120 MILLION APPROXIMATE GLA: 11,500 SQ M CLIENT: HINES TRANSACTION: ACQUISITION
Project Viking is a prime high street retail portfolio in Copenhagen, made up of five high street assets, anchored by Superdry, Benetton and the Danish fashion retailer, Sand. Most of those stores are on Købmagergade, the main pedestrian shopping street.
We, in partnership with Red Property Advisers, advised Hines on their acquisition of this portfolio, as part of their high street separate account mandate with the German pension fund, BVK.
James Robson, managing director of Hines found that our involvement made the acquisition a great deal easier:
“Having worked with Red and Cushman & Wakefield recently on the acquisition of a prime high street portfolio in Copenhagen, I have first-hand experience of seeing how they operate and was impressed by their knowledge of the high street market as well as their professionalism and dedication to us as their client. They have clearly been involved in many of the significant high street deals over the last few years and this resulted in Hines being given outstanding advice. When any problems arose they always found solutions to overcoming any such obstacles. I would recommend working with Cushman & Wakefield/Red and look forward to working with them in the future.”
This “off-market” transaction also showed the excellent working relationships we form with local partners, in this case Red Property Advisers. We’ve worked with them on over €800 million of retail transactions since 2011.
Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland
LOT SIZE: APPROX. €900 MILLION APPROXIMATE GLA: 500,000 SQ M CLIENT: IKEA CENTERS TRANSACTION: DISPOSAL
Disposing of the Republic Portfolio was the largest retail park disposal to have ever taken place in Europe, comprising 25 assets adjacent to IKEA Retail stores, in eight markets dealing in five currencies. IKEA Centers wanted to dispose of this portfolio in line with their new global strategy, finding ‘good neighbours’ to ensure the future success of the sites.
The deal was led by our experienced and dedicated core EMEA Retail Capital Markets Team, who formed strong partnerships with local colleagues in the target markets. Together they built a sales strategy around rental uplift, minimisation of operating expenses and area optimisation.
The opportunity they offered buyers was to gain an immediate strategic footprint in some of Europe’s most sought-after markets, as well as a close relationship with one of the world’s leading retailers.
This strategy proved successful, with the core project team maintaining full visibility on all elements of the transaction from start to completion. The portfolio completed in two stages in Q1 and Q3 2017 for over €900 million.
Matts Haggblom, transaction leader at IKEA Centers was very happy with the results: “IKEA Centers mandated Cushman & Wakefield to divest a pan-European portfolio – the first external divestment for us with an international investor. Over the course of 12 months Cushman & Wakefield ran a global marketing process which resulted in a successful sale. There were many complexities and difficulties over the process but Cushman & Wakefield always found solutions which helped the deal move forward. We were impressed by their dedication and professionalism and would look to have them on our side of negotiations in future transactions."
Bocham, Germany
LOT SIZE: APPROX. €660 MILLION (50% €330 million) APPROXIMATE GLA: 115,000 SQ M CLIENT: PWRE TRANSACTION: DISPOSAL
Ruhr Park in Bochum had just undergone major physical and operational repositioning, and now offered a major opportunity to invest in one of Germany’s best super-regional shopping centres.
It had substantial medium-term value creation potential, which we marketed interactively, with a website including video and drone footage that allowed potential investors from all over the world to navigate the entire site with ease. We also provided a roadshow that targeted global investors with a personal face-to-face approach.
These phases of marketing brought our client to the attention of our global network, providing a platform for them to access the world’s most liquid buyers.
This resulted in a maximising of the pricing of the 50% stake of the scheme, allowing the new investor to partner with one of Europe’s best-in-class shopping centre owner-operators, Unibail-Rodamco, with a stake in a dominant German shopping centre.
Vincent Rouget from PWRE quoted: “Congratulations and thanks to the whole Cushman & Wakefield team for this very well-handled process and strong (multiple) offers received.”
Edinburgh, Scotland
LOT SIZE: APPROX. €690 MILLION APPROXIMATE GLA: 850,000 SQ FT CLIENT: TH REAL ESTATE TRANSACTION: DISPOSAL
The Edinburgh St James development is set to replace the dated St James Centre in the heart of the cosmopolitan city. The new development will replace the old government offices and shopping centre with 850,000 sq ft of retail space alongside leisure facilities, including a cinema, gym, hotel and residential apartments.
We advised on and managed the disposal of a 75% stake in the shopping centre (TH Real Estate retained the remaining 25%), securing a purchase price of circa €690 million from Dutch pension fund APG after an aggressive and targeted marketing campaign.
TH Real Estate said the joint venture with APG “represents one of the largest inward investments for Scotland this year.”
While Robert-Jan Foortse, Head of European Property Investments at APG, was equally happy with the purchase, saying:
“The Edinburgh St James project is one the UK’s largest and most significant regeneration projects. We are excited to become part of this scheme that will transform and reinforce the heart of Edinburgh city centre with the creation of a new shopping destination. Furthermore, we believe that the addition of the W Hotel will help attract even more tourists to this Unesco World Heritage city. As such, the project fits very well in our portfolio with stakes in shopping centres like Westfield Stratford City in London and CAP3000 in Nice. Edinburgh St James also fits in seamlessly with our strategy to increase our focus on ‘develop to core’ projects.”
Helsinki, Finland
LOT SIZE: APPROX. €500 MILLION APPROXIMATE GLA: 44,700 SQ M CLIENT: TH REAL ESTATE TRANSACTION: ACQUISITION
Built in 2006, Kamppi is the newest shopping centre in central Helsinki, and has the highest footfall in Scandinavia – 42 million. One of the main drivers of this high footfall is the centre’s integration with a major public transport hub. Altogether, Kamppi has a GLA of 44,700 sq m spread across seven floors.
We advised TH Real Estate in their acquisition of a 50% stake in the Kamppi Centre for their European Cities Fund, one of the largest single asset transactions in Finland.
To provide the best possible advice, we jointly executed the project through our London, Swedish and Finnish offices. This way, we could bring local understanding of market conditions when looking into key pricing factors, as well as possible asset management initiatives.
Johan Åström, Head of Investment Nordics at TH Real Estate, underlined the importance of our local knowledge: “Cushman & Wakefield carried out buy-side advice for us on our acquisition of Kamppi shopping centre in Helsinki. Led by the Swedish retail team who seamlessly worked with the local Finish team, we received high-quality and detailed advice within a tight timeframe. This advice undoubtingly helped us close the transaction and enabled us to mitigate any unforeseen challenges.”
Prague, Czech Republic
LOT SIZE: APPROX. €80 MILLION APPROXIMATE GLA: 38,000 SQ M CLIENT: MARKLAND TRANSACTION: DISPOSAL
Kotva is not just one of the best-known department stores in Prague, but one of the most renowned buildings in the city’s centre as well. It has 35,000 sq m of space, 300 underground parking spaces, and over 40 years of retail trading history behind it.
We successfully completed the sale of this store, on behalf of Markland, by implementing a global marketing strategy. Our EMEA Retail Capital Markets Team is comprehensively versed in the dynamics of the CEE retail market, and, combined with our access to a network of active international investors, meant we were able to attract the most aggressive capital and achieve the maximum price for our client.
Our Czech Capital Markets Team are also widely acknowledged experts in Czech retail, and could provide informed advice on the asset, its location, and the existing leases and covenants of the tenants.
The combined expertise of our teams resulted in over 55 NDA’s being signed and 22 initial offers being received, a record for this profile of deal. We generated a high amount of investor appetite and drove pricing far above both the base sales price and our client’s expectations.
LOT SIZE: APPROX. €180 MILLION APPROXIMATE GLA: 14,000 SQ M CLIENT: BANK OF IRELAND TRANSACTION: DISPOSAL
The Bank of Ireland had acquired Galleri K, a landmark store in Copenhagen’s retail landscape, in 2008. It’s located between two iconic department stores, at the most prestigious end of Copenhagen’s retail block.
Since acquiring it for 1 million DKK (¤134 million), the owners had implemented a defensive asset management strategy and maintained the income of the building, ensuring steady and stable performance. Combined with low vacancy, attractive financing on a high growth pitch, and a strong, credible story, this was a unique opportunity.
Once we were instructed by Bank of Ireland to dispose of Galleri K, we created a set of innovative marketing materials, including a CGI model of the property, which allowed interested investors to inspect the property without leaving their office. We also produced a video that introduced both the local market and the asset itself. The video was viewed 100 times in its first week, and over 500 times during the entire marketing process, from a range of locations including the US, China, Malaysia, Sweden, Czech Republic, Germany, France and the UK.
We employed a highly experienced, dedicated core team, made up of the EMEA Retail Capital Markets Team and Red Property Advisers. Together they maintained competitive tension, driving pricing with their in-depth knowledge of the asset, and keeping the vendor and investors fully updated each day.
This asset management approach, based on a deep market understanding and a thorough analysis of the asset pre-launch, ensured the success of this deal, and ultimately set a new pricing precedent for Copenhagen’s high street real estate.
