Sonae Sierra sells stake in Brazilian shopping centre for €95 million

Sonae, through Sonae Sierra, has just announced the sale of its 25.86% stake in a shopping centre in Campinas, in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, for a pre-tax amount of 625 million reais, equivalent to more than €95 million at the current exchange rate.

The infrastructure in question is Parque Dom Pedro Shopping, which was developed by Sonae Sierra and opened in 2002. It is currently controlled and managed by Allos, of which Sonae Sierra is a major shareholder.

The buyers were two Brazilian real estate investment funds, namely Hedge Shopping Parque Dom Pedro Fundo de Investimento Imobiliário and Fundo de Investimento Imobiliário – FII Parque Dom Pedro Shopping Centre.

All this information was disclosed on Wednesday in a statement released by the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (CMVM). The sale agreement was signed on Tuesday, 30 December.

“This disposal allows Sonae Sierra to reorganise its presence in Brazil, becoming exclusively exposed to this market through its investment in Allos”, the statement said. The completion of the transaction is still subject to approval by the Administrative Council for Economic Defence (CADE), a Brazilian federal agency dedicated to competition regulation.

“This transaction involves the application of International Accounting Standard IAS 21, under which the cumulative negative impact of exchange rate variations generated since the origin of the investment, amounting to approximately €53.6 million, previously recognised in the balance sheet […] and reflected in the net equity reported by Sonae, is reclassified from equity to the income statement,” the company explains.

Minutes after the news, following the opening of European markets, in a shorter session with lower than normal liquidity due to the eve of the New Year, Sonae was trading unchanged on the Lisbon stock exchange, at €1.634 per share.