PM, WFW advise on Mercadona´s €100 million property sale to MDSR Investments

The Pinsent Masons Real Estate team has advised Mercadona on the sale of 27 properties in this transaction, while Watson Farley & Williams has counselled the syndicate of banks on the financing to Israeli fund MDSR Investments

The Spanish supermarket chain Mercadona has announced the sale of 27 properties to the Israeli fund MDSR Investments, for more than €100 million euros.

MDSR was advised by Eversheds Sutherland for the Legal aspect with a team led by Rafael Arráez, and by CBRE on the purchase and structuring of the financing. For its part, Mercadona was advised by José Luis García-Manso (pictured left) the Pinsent Masons partner in charge of the Madrid Real Estate team, together with associate Luis Suárez de Lezo Landecho (pictured right), from the same team.

Marco Tamarit, director of Investments and Treasury of Mercadona, one of those responsible for carrying out this operation, said: “This is part of the strategy that the company has put in place since March 2020, when it put another package on sale of stores, with the aim of exchanging bricks for euros to accelerate the brutal transformation in which it is immersed and which it plans to culminate in 2023.”

Once the investment plan is finalised, the company will have invested a total of €10 billion euros, of which it is expected to invest €1.5 billion this year to help accelerate the activation of economic activity in Spain and Portugal.

With this acquisition, MDSR Investments continues to consolidate its presence in the Spanish retail market, its main market, where it already has 63 assets including the recently acquired portfolio of 27 supermarkets operated by Mercadona.

On the other hand, WFW has advised a syndicate of banks comprising Banco Santander S.A., Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A., Bankinter S.A. and Banco Pichincha de España S.A. on the financing to Israeli fund MDSR Investments Ltd (“MDSR”) (through its subsidiaries Aldton Invest S.L.U., Duncanhill S.L.U. and Dantrell Invest S.L.U.) for the acquisition, under a sale & leaseback agreement. The WFW Madrid Real Estate team, which advised the lenders, was led by partner Pablo San Gil in collaboration with senior associate Ignacio Cacho.