Chile. Walmart Chile announced that it will put 10 of its 12 shopping centers up for sale to focus more on its core business. Manuel López, manager of Walmart Inmobiliaria, spoke with the Chilean media Diario Financiero and explained that "this sale has to do with the planning of the country in the coming years and what we want to do is focus on supermarkets."
The assets included in the package put up for sale total 250 thousand square meters, with an occupancy rate that exceeds 95%. The sale process will be led by real estate consultancy CBRE and JP Morgan.
According to Nicolas Cox, CEO of CBRE, the sale process should be finalized by the end of the first quarter of 2016 and foreign investors are expected to be the main stakeholders.
"This is going to generate a lot of appetite in foreign investors. Entering Chile is always attractive, the economy offers certain advantages over the region, it has legal security and good access to debt, it has many advantages for real estate investors that are known as defensive, basically real assets with a good flow capacity. The main thing it has is that 40% of its leasable square meters are being occupied by Walmart, with terms of 20 and 25 years," Cox explained.
