(Bloomberg) -- Intu Properties Plc’s stake in a major Madrid shopping center is being put up for sale as part of the collapsed U.K. landlord’s liquidation.
Administrators at KPMG have appointed broker CBRE Group Inc (NYSE:CBRE). to market Intu’s 50% share in the Xanadu mall, according to people with knowledge of the plan. No guide price has been set, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The stake was valued at 233.8 million pounds ($311 million) in Intu’s 2019 annual report published in March.
Intu, owner of nine of the U.K’s top 20 shopping centers, fell into administration in June, buckling under the weight of a 4.5 billion-pound debt pile as the pandemic hit rents and shut off rescue options. The company had already agreed to sell off most of its Spanish holdings before the outbreak as it sought to raise cash and win a reprieve from lenders.
The U.K. firm bought the Xanadu mall, which boasts an indoor ski slope and about 220 stores, for 530 million euros ($626 million) in 2017, before selling a 50% stake in the property to Nuveen, the asset manager owned by the Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America.
Representatives of KPMG, CBRE and Nuveen declined to comment.
Investors have continued to buy up Spanish retail properties even as deals for U.K. malls collapsed. The country’s lower online retail sales and shorter, turnover-based lease terms have helped prop up rents and values. Spain has also bounced back from lockdown more quickly than the U.K., where shoppers have continued to stay away from stores in greater numbers.
That’s encouraged Intu’s administrators to push ahead with a sales plan for the Madrid mall, which is also less heavily indebted than most of the company’s other properties. Intu’s share was financed with about 131.5 million pounds of debt maturing in 2022 and was well within its borrowing limits at the last valuation, according to Intu’s accounts.
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