Banimmo sells French retail real estate division

Belgian listed real estate developer Banimmo sold its French subsidiary, which specialized in retail real estate transformation. It has been sold to help lower the parent company’s debt.

Retail locations in city centres

Banimmo France, founded in 2003, became a retail real estate transformation specialist, dedicated to French city centres. The group has worked on the Marché Saint Germain and Halles Secrétan (Paris) transformations for instance. Banimmo France was recently awarded the project to renovate Nice’s Gare du Sud train station and it was also asked to create a Food Square in the Parisian business district, La Défense.

It has not been disclosed how much French private equity fund Montefiore is paying to acquire Banimmo France. The board will only say that Banimmo will collect fourteen million euro, after deducting the French subsidiary’s debt. Those funds will mean a lot to Banimmo, because it carries a heavy debt. “Thanks to the sale, Banimmo once again reduces its debt, this time to 84 million euro. This means that the company has lowered its debt by two thirds in 18 months.”, the press release said. This “healthier balance” will enable Banimmo to focus on Belgian office real estate more than ever.