German investor buys Continente at Colombo shopping centre

Sonae has sold the 23,000m2 Continente hypermarket at Lisbon’s Colombo shopping centre for an undisclosed sum.

The Portuguese shopping centre developer and management company sold the property where the hypermarket currently operates to Union Investment according to the German press.
The space will continue to be explored by shopping centre management company Sonae Sierra. It is the German fund’s first retail investment in the Portuguese market reports the Portuguese business title Negócios.
“With this acquisition in Colombo, we join the two major foci of our investment strategy in retail, which on the one hand is to combine the consumer goods retail goods, and on the other, shopping centres of excellence”, said Roman Muller, the German group’s investment manager.
Opened in 1997, the hypermarket in Lisbon is one of the largest Continente spaces in Portugal and opened its doors at the same time as Colombo opened with 300 shops.
The shopping centre, designed by architect José Quintela da Fonseca was named after the Italian explorer and discoverer Christopher Columbus and is owned by the Sierra Fund (50%) and CBRE Global Investors (50%) and is administered by Sonae Sierra.
Sonae is a multinational business group based in Maia, Porto District, Portugal. It is present in 90 countries, operating in several sectors, including retail, financial services, shopping centres management, software and information systems, media and telecommunications.
It is the largest private employer in Portugal, with 53,794 employees. Sonae is listed on the Euronext PSI-20 in Lisbon, under the code SON.
In the third quarter of 2022, Sonae’s turnover amounted to €3.4Bn, with net results in the order of €92 million.
Established in 1965, Union has €54.4Bn of assets under management, €45.1Bn of real estate assets, 479 projects and 43 real estate funds.