Montreal-based Ivanhoé Cambridge, the real estate arm of the Quebec provincial CDPQ pension fund, has shaken up its shopping centre portfolio in Brazil.
The company has been involved in shopping malls in South America's most populous country since partnering with the Carvalho family to create Ancar Ivanhoé in 2006.
It has since grown its shopping centre portfolio from three to 18 malls, with another eight under its management, making it the second-largest owner of malls in Brazil, according to a statement from the firm.
Ivanhoé Cambridge increased its stake in Shopping Nova Iguaçu by 44%, giving it majority ownership of the centre about 80 minutes northwest of downtown Rio de Janeiro.
The company also announced its purchase of the remaining 25% stake in Botafogo Praia Shopping Mall on the boulevard facing Botafogo Beach in downtown Rio.
Ivanhoé Cambridge has also downsized its share on three other Brazilian shopping centres, raising CA$80 million by selling a partial interest in three of its other Brazilian malls to Vinci FII, a Brazilian REIT. Those properties are:
- Natal Shopping in Natal, a city of about 900,000 residents in the northeast of Brazil.
- Via Sul Shopping in Fortaleza, Brazil's fourth-largest city with a population of about 2.7 million. Fortaleza is the capital city of the state of Ceará, northwest of Natal.
- Conjunto Nacional Brasilia Shopping in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia, a city of about 214,000 residents.
Ivanhoé Cambridge noted that shopping centres in Brazil have had robust sales partially due to a comparative lack of security in street retail outlets. The company said its occupancy rate is at 95% for its shopping centres.
“In alignment with our strategic plan, these moves have allowed us to increase liquidity by reallocating capital towards high-performing assets in order to improve the overall quality and risk-return profile of our portfolio to benefit from the growth of consumption in Brazil,” Adriano Mantesso, Ivanhoé Cambridge's managing director of Latin America, said in a statement.