By Andrea Hargraves 
German wholesale giant Metro AG, which owns Makro, a Portuguese subsidiary with ten stores across the country, has sold the company’s land and premises in Alfragide, including its office building and commercial establishment. The buyer is Imofomento, BPI’s real estate investment trust, which has paid out more than €40 million.
In a statement issued on Thursday, July 8, the company said it was a “sale and lease” operation, where “Macro Portugal will continue to be the tenant of the property, ensuring its long-term operation at that location.”
Makro Portugal, together with Metro Properties, the property management entity of Metro AG, has just sold it to the Aberto Imofomento Real Estate Investment Fund, managed and represented by BPI Gestão de Ativos, the location of its first store in Portuguese territory, in Alfragide. , for more than 40 million euros”, reveals the German wholesaler.
The current assets area, in an operation brokered by JLL, is now 25,400 sq m, of which 21,000 sq m is for warehouse and the remaining 4,400 sq m for the office building.
“This transaction proves the excellent result achieved by Makro Portugal over the past few years and especially during the pandemic period. This commitment by Metro AG in the Portuguese market once again confirms the Group’s confidence in our country”, confirms David Antunes, CEO of Macro Portugal.
Describing the operation as “very competitive, with the asset generating a lot of interest among investors,” Fernando Ferreira, “Head of Capital Markets” at JLL, confirmed that it was a “very attractive investment opportunity, as it involved a long-term sale and leaseback with Strong international and market leader.
“Moreover,” and with the guarantee of the same responsible for the JLL, “the property itself has excellent characteristics and has been the target of continued investment, being located in a strategic commercial location in the Lisbon region.”
Present in our country since 1989, employing about a thousand people, Makro Portugal closed the last fiscal year (2019/20) with a revenue of 351 million euros. Parent company metro AG, which operates in 37 countries and employs more than 97,000 people, recorded sales of about 25.6 billion euros.