M Core enters Italy and acquires 4 shopping centres for 300 million
M Core enters Italy and acquires 4 shopping centres for 300 million
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The English company M Core makes its debut in our market, with an investment of 300 million euros, and goes on an asset-buying spree in Piedmont, Campania, Sicily and Apulia.
Who is joining the M Core group
The investor, with offices in London, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Paris, Lille, Nantes, Strasbourg, Warsaw, Bucharest, Düsseldorf and Madrid, acquires Centro Grande Cuneo, Grande Sud Shopping Park (the Naples area), Etnapolis in Catania and Brinpark in Brindisi.
Their respective total areas are 38.000, 81.000 and 140.000 sq m, while the figure for Brinpark, in terms of GLA alone, amounts to 17.000 square metres.
The gross lettable area of the three largest centres, with 300 retail units, is 121.000 sq m, has an occupancy rate of 100% and attracts 16 million visitors (figures for 2024), with a tenant base including, among others, Primark, Zara, Decathlon, Leroy Merlin, H&M, JD Sports, MediaWorld and McDonald's.
More specifically, Grande Cuneo is home to a Spazio Conad, and has 50 stores. Grande Sud has 120 brands, including a Sole365 supermarket, while Etnapolis features 130 brands and a Decò hyperstore.
Brinpark, for its part, is a fully let shopping park with an occupier base of 10 main shops, such as Eurospin, MediaWorld, Ovs and Cisalfa Sport.
2,3 billion available in Europe
For M Core, this is the first reinvestment of the 2,3 billion euros in proceeds following the sale of Proudreed, the group's French industrial platform, to funds managed by Blackstone.
Most of the enormous sum will also be channelled into the operator's portfolio in the United Kingdom and the rest of the markets where it operates in Europe, supporting its continued growth in the real estate and industrial sectors.
Italy represents, for M Core, the seventh geographical market, after the UK, Poland, Romania, Spain, Ireland and Germany. However, the British investor does not rule out expanding beyond its current borders.
Following the investment in our country, the group now holds 6 billion euros in assets.
The fund has also entered our country in partnership with Milan-based Reve Asset Management, which will provide advice on the entire local portfolio.
More details on Etnapolis, Grande Sud and Grande Cuneo
Returning to the assets, it should be noted that Grande Cuneo operates without direct competition within the ten-minute isochrone and in a primary area where no future pipeline has been launched by other operators.
Grande Sud serves a catchment area of almost 1,2 million inhabitants, while Etnapolis is one of the largest shopping centres in the province of Catania, set to become the only shopping centre directly connected to the city centre of the provincial capital, thanks to a dedicated underground station.
The three largest assets were acquired from funds managed by Morgan Stanley, while Brinpark had previously been owned by Hig Capital.
Brinpark: the smallest asset is nevertheless a large shopping park
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This article was translated from the original Italian version with the assistance of artificial intelligence. In case of discrepancies, please refer to the original Italian version.
