Prague – The world’s largest furniture chain IKEA sold 25 shopping parks in a total of eight European countries. According to the Financial Times, which carried the news, it was bought by real estate fund Pradera for 900 million euros (converted to 24.3 billion crowns). The fund informed about trading in a press release, the IKEA company confirmed it to the ČTK agency.

The transaction also includes the sale of Czech Avion Shopping Park in Zličín Prague, which offers more than 56,000 square meters of retail space, roughly half of which is occupied by Ikea stores. But he will keep company here. “This transaction does not concern the IKEA stores in the Czech Republic and has no impact on their day-to-day operations in the Czech Republic,” added Tomáš Kubík, a spokesman for the Czech chain of stores.

In another shopping park in Zličín, which is visited by around 4.6 million people annually, the biggest tenants include Tesco, Datart, A3 Sport and SportsDirect.com

Also in the case of other shopping parks that are part of the transaction, IKEA will maintain its own stores in those locations. The park itself, which Pradera will acquire, has an area of ​​538,000 square meters. “The transaction will take place in two phases. The first phase will cover 17 assets in Poland, Germany and France. The official handover of the first phase of the shopping park is scheduled for April 4, 2017,” said IKEA Centers spokeswoman Jessica Svensson. .

The second phase will include eight more shopping centers in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland. Ty Pradera will take over this August.

In the Czech Republic, IKEA also operates shopping centers in Brno and Ostrava under the Avion brand. But sales won’t cover them.

A growing European economy plays into the corporate cards. According to experts, the sale of the IKEA retail park network across Europe is logical due to the historically higher prices for commercial real estate in the European Union, which gives the company the opportunity to earn from 15 to 20 percent more on such sales compared to the crisis period five years ago. .

According to previous information, IKEA will maintain around 25 shopping centers in Europe. According to management, the company only wants to maintain a managed park to cooperate smoothly with neighboring tenants.

IKEA hired international consulting firm Cushman & Wakefield, which has extensive experience with such sales, to sell the space. The IKEA center is responsible for selling gardens. It is an independent unit within the IKEA Group, which is not involved in the day-to-day activities of the department store itself.

In the financial year ending August this year, after-tax profit of furniture company IKEA in the Czech Republic increased 12.7 percent to 675 million crowns. Sales rose nine percent to 9.3 billion crowns. In the last financial year, the IKEA Group increased its sales by seven percent to a record 34.2 billion euros, which is about 924 billion crowns. This company is the largest furniture retailer in the world.