Â鶹ӳ»­

Private equity group Orion Capital Managers has entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire the Meraville retail park in the northern Italian city of Bologna.

According to well-informed market sources, the London-based investor is in talks to buy the scheme for around €80 mln from owner Pradera’s European Retail Fund.

First opened in November 2002, the retail park provides 35,500 m2 of space with main tenants including Leroy Merlin, Decathlon and MediaWorld.

In Italy, Orion is also understood to have tabled a bid for Da Vinci, the country’s largest retail park, earlier this year. However, owner AIG/Lincoln picked financial services group GWM for the €130 mln deal, which was announced in early August.

The 58,000 m2 asset was sold for a gross yield of nearly 9%.

Da Vinci is the latest in a string of retail park transactions under way in the Italian market, where opportunistic investors are scouting around for bargains.

US-based investor Blackstone has signed a preliminary agreement to acquire the Franciacorta Outlet Village for a discount of nearly 20% to market value. The deal, amounting to around €120-125 mln, is expected to close in September.

The 21,700-m2 asset in Rodengo Saiano near Brescia is owned by Aberdeen Asset Management which inherited it from Degi at the time of the acquisition of the German unit in late 2007.

According to PropertyEU's research data, Degi Grundwert-fonds invested €204 mln to buy the asset in January 2007. The complex is currently owned by the Degi Europa open-ended fund in liquidation and was last valued at €156 mln at end-March 2013.

In the largest retail property deal signed so far this year, Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing is buying a 60% stake in a portfolio of 15 retail parks and shopping centres across the country. The acquisition, which values the entire package at over €650 mln, is being financed by lender Goldman Sachs with leverage of between 50 and 60%, in one of the largest loans provided in Europe by a single bank in recent months.

The assets are being acquired from Auchan Group's Gallerie Commerciali Italia at a gross yield of over 8%.