

Three French banks have taken part in the country’s largest financing of 2015 so far, providing a mega €854m joint debt package for Altarea’s refinancing of a 17-asset retail portfolio, Real Estate Capital can reveal.
Crédit Agricole CIB and Natixis co-arranged the loan, each taking a 43% participation equal to €367m. Crédit Mutuel took a 14% share of €119.5m.
The facility is secured against 14 core French shopping centres, two Italian and one Spanish mall – located in Sant-Cugat, near Barcelona.


Listed French investor and developer Altarea has roots in retail, with a shopping centre portfolio of €4bn, in addition to office and residential.
In France, its portfolio is spread across Paris, Roubaix, Argenteuil, Lille and Brest; in Italy, its assets are mainly concentrated in the Lombardy region.
Crédit Agricole has arranged or participated in 40 financing transactions across France, the UK, Spain and Italy since the start of this year.
Last May, Altarea sold four Italian malls to Tristan Capital’s EPISO 3 opportunity fund for €122m in an off-market deal.
Two of the malls were in the Piedmont region, Due Valli in Pinerolo and La Cittadella in Casale Monferrato. A third, Cassetta Mattei is on the southwestern edge of Rome and the other was Ibleo in Ragusa in Sicily.