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Unibail's Westfield day; Empiric Student's potential portfolio sale

S&P Global Market Intelligence offers our top picks of European real estate news stories and more published throughout the week. Please note that some entries may have links to third-party sources that may require a subscription.

Two giants become one

* France's Unibail-Rodamco SE agreed to buy Australian mall giant Westfield Corp. in a deal that implies a total enterprise value for the latter of US$24.7 billion. The total shareholder consideration comes to US$15.68 billion. The combined company would have a gross market value of €61.1 billion.

The deal extends the reach of Europe's largest listed real estate investment trust to the U.S. and U.K.

Downsizing

* U.K.-based Empiric Student Property Plc is mulling the sale of its entire portfolio, worth about £820 million, Property Week reported, citing a company insider. Interested parties are reported to include U.S.-based Greystar, a joint venture between Global Student Accommodation and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Europe's AXA and Unite Group Plc.

The company recently ousted CEO Paul Hadaway.

* Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC is looking at a €550 million payday from its planned sale of a Paris hotel to Henderson Park. The Westin Paris-Vendome has 428 rooms and would be the investment platform's second landmark hotel purchase in the French capital.

* Blackstone Group LP divested the Magnolia Park shopping center in Wroclaw, Poland, for about €380 million.

Union Investment acquired the property, which consists of about 100,000 square meters of retail space, for its Unilmmo: Europa open-ended real estate fund. The shopping center will be the largest in Union Investment's Polish portfolio.

* Deka Immobilien GmbH sold 10 properties across Germany to different buyers for a total price of about €220 million, Property Investor Europe reported.

Missing the target

* Citing a lack of investor demand, Aviva Investors withdrew plans for Aviva Investors Secure Income REIT's IPO in London. The commercial REIT had sought to raise as much as £250 million in the offering, which the company may consider "reactivating" at a later date, said Renos Booth, Aviva Investors' head of real estate long income.

* Aberdeen Standard European Logistics Income PLC, the logistics investment trust of Aberdeen Standard Investments, raised gross proceeds of £187.5 million in equity in its IPO, short of its £250 million target.

Trading of the trust's shares commenced Dec. 15. The trust will target big-box logistics warehouses and last-mile urban logistics assets in Europe.

Racing ahead

* Airbnb Inc. is hoping to outbid investors including Blackstone and CVC Capital Partners to acquire the European villa rentals division of Wyndham Worldwide Corp. in a $1 billion deal, The (U.K.) Times reported. The takeover deal would be the company's largest one yet, the newspaper noted.

* Urbanest, IQ, Greystar and a joint venture between Europa Capital and Generation Estates are in the second round of bidding for LetterOne's U.K. portfolio of 11 student accommodation buildings that could fetch between £820 million and £850 million, Property Week reported.

Naysayers

* A number of minority investors in Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Plc have rejected City Developments Ltd.'s sweetened offer to take over the company, and they are urging other investors to follow suit.

International Value Advisers LLC, MSD Partners LP and its affiliates, and Classic Fund Management AG informed the independent directors of Millennium & Copthorne that they would not tender their shares for the "unattractive offer."

Looking up

* Saudi's Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development Co. is planning an 800 million-United-Arab-Emirates-dirham investment to build a 34-story waterfront skyscraper in Dubai. Groundbreaking on the project will take place in January 2018.

Featured during the week on S&P Global Market Intelligence

Analysts cheer Unibail-Rodamco's Westfield deal, expect boost to US prime malls

Unibail-Rodamco CEO: 'Westfield is not a proxy for the US' retail market

Analysts question Hammerson's optimism in selling £2B of retail assets

As of Dec. 14, US$1 was equivalent to 3.67 UAE dirhams.

Amisha Mehta contributed to this report.