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US private equity giant Blackstone is to use recently acquired Multi Corporation as its retail platform in Europe, Multi’s new chairman Dick van Well told PropertyEU.

‘There are opportunities because Blackstone is to convert debt into equity and it also offers scope for expansion,’ Van Well said. ‘We now get very frequent investment proposals from them to buy shopping centres in Europe,’ the former board chairman of Dutch construction and development firm Dura Vermeer added.

Blackstone announced in early October that it had completed the acquisition of European shopping centre developer Multi Corporation in one of Europe's largest distressed transactions since the onset of the credit crisis.

The US group had been actively working on a takeover of Multi for months and was given the green light by the European Commission in late July.

In April Blackstone was said to have acquired almost half of Multi’s €900 mln corporate debt over a nine-month period at a hefty discount of 50 cents per euro of debt.

Van Well declined to disclose how much Blackstone paid for Multi, but the US group is rumoured to have forked out just over €500 mln for the €900 mln debt package from 11 banks. Lead creditor NIBC bank is said to have cut a relatively good deal with a €150 mln payment at a discount of 20%. ‘Neither Blackstone nor Multi will comment on the price paid, but that the banks with a bigger say got more does not seem unreasonable to me,’ Van Well said.

Blackstone’s takeover of Multi has involved job cuts amounting to 10-12% of the company’s workforce, which now totals over 500 people. The European retail specialist has phased out its development activities in Germany, Portugal and Spain and a number of country directors have left, including Axel Funke (Germany) and Benno van Veggel (Portugal).

In countries such as Spain and Portugal it is currently cheaper to buy shopping centres than develop them, said former Multi CEO Heino Vink who has stayed on as a management board member following the takeover. ‘Multi will remain active in (re)-development, leasing, mall management and asset management. The focus is on sustainable rental income - and that means an even more important role for leasing. In addition we are moving from a country organisation to a functional structure whereby the expertise per discipline is key and not so much the country where we are active,’ he said.

Meanwhile, Multi’s founder and major shareholder Hans van Veggel has departed from the scene altogether after resigning over the summer following allegations of tax evasion. Van Well: ‘That came as a big surprise both for Hans, Blackstone and ourselves. You wouldn’t want to wish that on anyone, but the outcome would have been the same in the end. The first chapter in Multi’s history - its creation and development under Hans - has closed. Now the time has come to start a new chapter.’