POLAND, 17TH JULY, 2006 – GE Real Estate Central Europe announces the acquisition of a portfolio of 16 hypermarkets, with attached retail space from the French hypermarket operator Groupe Casino for €555 million. GE already owns a further nine galleries which it acquired in a transaction with Casino in 2003.
Simultaneous to the transaction, Casino is disposing of its Geant hypermarket business throughout Poland to Metro Group and disposing of the Polish operations of its Leader Price supermarket chain to Tesco.
GE has agreed 10 year leases on each of the 16 hypermarkets. The portfolio comprises a total gross lettable area of 339,686 sq m, of which 319,058 sq m comprises hypermarket space and 20,628 sq m is retail gallery space.
This is a significant transaction for GE Real Estate building on its strong track record of owning and managing retail assets in Poland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Slovakia. It also builds on GE’s relationship with Casino following the acquisition of 12 retail galleries from them in a circa €220m transaction in 2003.
Karim Habra, Managing Director Central Europe, GE Real Estate, said:
"This 100% equity transaction rapidly accelerates GE's growth in the region. It will more than double our ownership of retail assets in Poland and make us the leading real estate investor in Central Europe. We are very pleased to have concluded another successful transaction with Casino, which builds on our long-standing partnership with them."
This transaction is subject to Metro Group’s final board approval.
Contact:
Financial Dynamics, London
Stephanie Highett / Dido Laurimore / Nicole King, +44 (0)20 7831 3113
Stephanie.Highett@fd.com /
Dido.Laurimore@fd.com /
Nicole.King@fd.com
Notes to editors:
About GE Real Estate
GE Real Estate (
www.gerealestate.com) is a world leader in commercial real estate capital solutions. Formed in 1972, the business has more than US$38 billion in core assets with 44 offices located throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia/New Zealand. GE Real Estate, backed by its parent company's AAA rating, offers a broad range of financing, equity and servicing solutions including: intermediate and long-term mortgage financing, restructuring and acquisition capital, niche equity investment, joint ventures, capital markets securitization and placements, and asset management. As one of the fastest growing units within GE Commercial Finance, Real Estate has experienced annual growth of more than 10% for the last ten consecutive years.
GE Commercial Finance (
www.gecommercialfinance.com) offers businesses an extensive array of financial services and products. With over US$260 billion in assets and an expertise in the mid-market, GE Commercial Finance provides loans, operating leases, financing programs and innovative structured capital to help customers grow. GE Commercial Finance is a wholly owned subsidiary of the General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), a diversified services, technology and manufacturing company with operations worldwide.
General Electric (NYSE: GE) is Imagination at Work - a diversified technology, media and financial services company focused on solving some of the world's toughest problems.
