On 17 October, El País advanced the news that, finally, the group El Corte Inglés made official the sale of his building situated in the heart of the trade in Barcelona, el Portal de l'Àngel. The buyers have been the Dutch real estate manager, known as Redevco and Ares, an American investment fund and the agreed figure has reached 200 million euros.
The reason of the sale has been mainly the scarce profitability of the Spanish group that extracted of these installations. The reality is that El Corte Inglés showed a wide offer aimed at a young audience, through sports fashion, audiovisual products and accessories, but did not get the desired performance.
On the other hand, Redevco has issued a press release through his official website in which it values this operation like an attractive opportunity of investment: "The acquisition of Barcelona has all the elements that we search in this kind of investment anchored in the retail trade: a location of first level with a big influx of visitors in a city that is a magnet for the tourists, combined with the opportunity to transform the existent format in an attractive destination of mixed use led by the retail trade." From Redevco already have offered some details of as it will be this new building: "The basement, the low plant and the first flat will contain retail offers. The space of offices will be distributed in the upper levels" explains Israel Casanova, director of the Gallic real estate agency.
El Corte Inglés wants to take a new course in his strategy
The changes in the leadership of El Corte Inglés that have lived in the last two years, indicated that the company would take a new course, and this movement also responds to this strategic change. ECI, headed by Marta Álvarez, has made clear in numerous occasions, that would delete the investment deposited in those centres that did not offer them a profitable return, and this case, is one of them.
Barcelona has not been the only. Also it has done official the closing of the centre located in the street Colón of Valencia, in the Gran Vía of Bilbao, in La Moneda and Calle Vitoria of Burgos, a shopping centre of Jaen, also in Murcia, La Vaguada,Parque Sur and Serrano 52, in the Spanish capital. Although there is until a total of 16 cases of closings, these are some of the operations that have effected in search of the profitability to which does allusion the maximum leader of the group of big warehouses.