Igd Siiq, one of the key players in the Italian retail real estate sector and listed on the Star segment of the Italian Stock Exchange, finalized the purchase of the entire Katanè Shopping Center in Gravina (Catania), for a total investment of €98.372 million.

The center is comprised of a 15,000 m²  mall with 70 shops and six medium-large sized areas, which it has been managing since opening in May 2009, and a hypermarket covering a sales area of  8,000 m² , equivalent to a total GLA of 13,500 m² . Igd also replaced Ipercoop Sicilia in the preliminary agreement for the sale of the hypermarket signed with the company Iniziative Immobiliari Siciliane (Gruppo CMC of Ravenna).

At the same time Ipercoop Sicilia and Igd signed an 18-year lease agreement for the hypermarket. Ipercoop Sicilia’s shareholders consist of four large retailer cooperatives including Coop Adriatica which controls 41.5% of Igd’s capital.

Claudio Albertini, Igd Siiq’s Chief Executive Officer commented:  “The decision to expand our involvement in the Katané center to include the hypermarket is a product of our recent hands-on experience:  we are, in fact, talking about a center that was completely rented when it opened in May and which has provided very encouraging traffic numbers. Furthermore, Sicily is an area where there is still considerable room for growth in retail.  In January we rescinded the preliminary agreement for the shopping mall in Trapani so we decided to take advantage of this opportunity to purchase a hypermarket which is part of a reality that we are already familiar with and which offers us obvious advantages in terms of the timing and visibility of our returns”.

“The acquisition of the hypermarket in Catania – Albertini added – is the fourth transaction that Igd has completed in 2009, following the addition to the portfolio of Guidonia in March, the shopping mall in the same Catania center in May and the Faenza center at the beginning of October. In a difficult year for the real estate market we have made investments totaling approximately  €295 million in businesses which immediately generated income and improved the yields of our portfolio thanks to the new centers’ occupancy rates of almost 100%”.