The facilities acquired by the US company are located in the cities of Leiria, Guimarães, Ponta Delgada and Viseu.
DLA Piper advised Realty Income on the purchase of four Decathlon stores in Portugal (Leiria, Guimarães, Ponta Delgada and Viseu), in an investment of over 12 million euros.
In December last year, Eversheds Sutherland, a company specializing in real estate purchase and sale negotiations, advised Decathlon on the sale of the premises of around 90 of its stores in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Germany.
Presented as a “major operation”, this transaction, valued at more than 600 million euros for around 400,000 square meters, means that the French sporting goods giant has given up the space of around 30 stores in France. Its home market, where it has 325 stores, remains its reference market. Worldwide, the group, which last year was led for the first time by a non-executive, Barbara Martin Coppola, has 1,751 stores.
As far as the operation in Portugal is concerned, it involved the collaboration of several practice areas and jurisdictions, with DLA Piper’s legal advice in Portugal consisting of tax advice, capital increases for SPVs (corporate vehicles) in Portugal and bond issues. The team that carried out this operation was coordinated by partner Luís Filipe Carvalho (Real Estate) and also included partners Ana Carvalho (Tax) and Nuno Castelo Branco (Corporate), senior associate Paulo Anjo and associate Joana Mergulhão (Real Estate), and associate Diogo Mendes de Almeida (Corporate).
Luís Filipe Carvalho, partner in charge of DLA Piper’s Real Estate practice in Portugal, said: “We are very pleased to see Portugal playing an important role in foreign investment strategies in the real estate sector, a vibrant sector with many challenges. This is an operation that demonstrates our ability to support our clients in multiple jurisdictions and practice areas, which reflects our global positioning and presence.”
Realty Income Corporation is a California-based real estate investment trust that invests primarily in stand-alone commercial properties in the United States, Spain and the United Kingdom.