Blackstone Is Said to Plan Sale of Portugal Shopping Centers

(Bloomberg) -- Blackstone Group LP plans to sell at least four retail centers it owns in Portugal and has hired Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. to broker the sale, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

The New York-based firm will offer for sale Sintra Retail Park, Forum Sintra, Forum Montijo and the Almada Forum, all of which are on the outskirts of Lisbon, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is confidential. Representatives for Blackstone and JLL declined to comment.

The properties may be worth 750 million euros ($873 million) to 900 million euros, making it the country’s biggest ever real estate sale by value in at least a decade, said Cristina Arouca, a researcher and director at broker CBRE Group Inc.

Demand for Portuguese real estate is rising because yields are higher there than in countries like the U.K. and Germany. CBRE forecasts investment in commercial property in Portugal may rise to a record of almost 3 billion euros this year, more than twice the level in 2016.

Blackstone began acquiring the malls in 2013, a year before Portugal exited a bailout following the financial crisis, with the purchase of shopping center landlord Multi Corporation. Two years later it bought the Almada Forum and Forum Montijo from a fund managed by Frankfurt-based Commerzbank AG, with broker Cushman & Wakefield Inc. estimating the purchase price at 330 million euros. Forum Sintra has 189 stores while Sintra Retail Park has 19 larger stores.

To contact the reporters on this story: Henrique Almeida in Lisbon at halmeida5@bloomberg.net, Sharon Smyth in London at ssmyth2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Neil Callanan at ncallanan@bloomberg.net, Jerrold Colten at jcolten@bloomberg.net, Christian Baumgaertel