France's Casino group has sold eleven shopping malls in Poland to a group consisting of two investors - GE Capital Real Estate and Heitman Central Europe Property Partners - for €163 million.
The sale of the malls, all of which were constructed around Geant hypermarkets owned by Casino, was concluded via the company's Polish real estate unit Domy Towarowe Casino.
The agreement also provides for the future acquisition of two more shopping malls in Janki Varsovie et Korona Wroclaw. Casino will retain control of the hypermarkets.
Casino said that the deal with the two real estate groups also included an agreement to work closely together on the further development of Casino's business in Poland. This includes carrying out the proposed extension of a number of the smaller malls already put forward by Casino, as well as the potential construction of new malls around Geant hypermarkets elsewhere in Poland.
The sale of the malls follows hot on the heels of the disposal of Casino's drinks bottling and trading operations Les Chais Beaucairois to Bordeaux-based drinks group Marie Brizard & Roger International for €22.6 million.
Solid results
Meanwhile, Casino said that first half turnover rose by 6.4 per cent to €11 billion while operating profits were ahead 12.7 per cent to €401.5 million. The increases were 9.5 and 14 per cent respectively at at constant exchange rates.
In the domestic market, all of the group's store formats increased their market share, with particularly strong operating profit growth at Franprix-Leader Price (31 per cent) and Monoprix (40 per cent).
Casino has been slower than many of its compatriot food retailers to develop its overseas business, and the international stores account for just 6 per cent of operating profits. The company said its operations in Latin America and Asia performed satisfactorily, while results in the US were affected by the economic downturn there. Polish results were impacted by increasing competition.
Three new hypermarkets and more than 30 new Leader Price discount outlets in France are due to open this year, and the company said it expected growth for the year as a whole to be in line with that of the first half.