Intu signs up partner for Madrid mall

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 30, 2017

Shortly after announcing its acquisition of the Xanadú shopping centre in Madrid for €530m and naming a new manager for its Spanish operations, British shopping centres giant Intu has entered a joint venture to claw back some of the purchase price.

Xanadú, which is among Spain’s top 10 malls with around 13m customer visits a year, will now be part-owned by the UK firm along with TH Real Estate. The latter is paying Intu €264.4m, before net debt, working capital and other adjustments, for a 50% stake in the mall and the SnowZone business, which is Spain’s only indoor ski slope. But it will have no stake in the centre’s management company.

The two-storey mall hosts some of the fashion sector’s biggest names, including all of Inditex’s store brands, plus Primark, H&M, Mango, benetton, JD Sports, Hollister, Cortefiel and El Corte Ingles. It also has an Apple store and major leisure attractions including that ski slope, plus a cinema and bowling lanes.

With work under way to add a Nickelodeon indoor theme park and an aquarium, it looks likely to be in a strong position to capitalise on the increasing trend for shoppers to seek experiences as well as product when they visit physical stores.