Starwood acquires seven retail centers in Sweden

London — Starwood Capital Group has acquired seven retail parks and shopping gallerias in Sweden for SEK 3.9 billion, according to CBRE, Starwood’s adviser on the transaction. Kooperativa Forbundet, a Swedish retail group, was the seller.



Located in Sweden’s four largest cities — Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmo and Uppsala — the seven properties encompass approximately 2.2 million sq. ft. The transaction also includes building rights for another 754,474 sq. ft. spread over three of the locations.



The properties are currently 96% leased, and a Coop, Sweden’s second-largest supermarket chain, anchors each location. In addition to Coop, the tenant lineup includes well known Swedish and international retailers such as XXL, MediaMarkt, H&M and Systembolaget.



As part of the transaction, Starwood extended the Coop leases at four of the seven locations, nearly doubling the weighted average unexpired lease term to 10.1 years.



According to CBRE research, total European retail investment is on the rise, growing to €8.3 billion in third quarter 2013 — an 11.5% increase over the previous quarter and the highest quarterly total to date this year. Investment activity is broadening, both geographically and in terms of asset quality, with the Nordics markets seeing an increase of 25% over the previous quarter.