Fairway advised Wereldhave on the sale of four of its six French shopping centres to Lighthouse Capital for €305m. The portfolio includes Docks Vauban in Le Havre, Docks 76 and Saint Sever in Rouen, and Rivetoile in Strasbourg.
In February 2020, Wereldhave had unveiled a new targeted strategy, called LifeCentral, aimed at anticipating long-term trends by transforming its assets into “Full Service Centres”, i.e. mixed-use assets that combine retail, food, entertainment, fitness, healthcare, coworking and housing and seek to meet all the daily needs of consumers under one roof. To fund its LifeCentral strategy, the group had prepared in early 2020 to exit France.
“With valuations stabilising and the vast majority of our divestments now completed, we have a strong balance sheet and sufficient cash to step up our LifeCentral strategy,” said Matthijs Storm, CEO of Wereldhave.