Nordic-Baltic retail group Kesko has sold 13 stores in different parts of Finland to Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company in a sale-and-leaseback transaction. The debt-free selling price of the properties is EUR 156 mln.
Nordic-Baltic retail group Kesko has sold 13 stores in different parts of Finland to Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company in a sale-and-leaseback transaction. The debt-free selling price of the properties is EUR 156 mln.
Helsinki-based investment bank Advium Corporate Finance advised Kesko in the transaction.
Kesko Group, which is also based in Finland, says it gains on the sale is EUR 63 mln, which will be treated as a non-recurring item in Kesko's fourth quarter operating profit. Kesko Pension Fund has sold one property owned by it.
All the divested properties have been leased back for use by Kesko's division parent companies under 5-15-year leases with extension options. The lease liability for the real estate sold by the Kesko Group totals EUR 142 mln, not classified as a finance lease.
Out of the 13 Kesko Group's properties included in the sale, eight are used by K-food store chains, three by K-rauta, one by the Anttila department store chain and one by VV-Auto. The transaction does not involve changes to the stores' operations. The total area of the properties sold by the Kesko Group is 111,000 m2.
At end-December 2008, Kesko owned 1 million m2 of properties and had 2.9 million m2 of properties on leasehold in Finland and other Nordic countries, the Baltic countries and Russia.
