PARIS-French retail REIT/SIIC Mercialys, a listed unit of the Casino supermarket group, said it has entered exclusive negotiations on the sale of $140 million of assets by the end of the year. Mercialys said it expects the disposals to realized at an average cap rate of around 6.5% and a total value in line with end-June appraisals, giving a net capital gain of some $40 million.

The assets are mainly service malls, food stores, restaurant buildings and co-ownership lots. The group's portfolio was estimated at about $3.5 billion at the end of June and the portfolios under negotiation represent 4% of its assets. Mercialys said in August that it planned to start disposing of mature assets from the end of the year, after a period in which it has concentrated on holding onto and developing properties.

"This is another step in our strategy of value creation," CEO Jacques Ehrmann said. "Our job is to work on assets with potential of value creation and develop them. Each year we should follow the discipline of identifying assets that have reached a satisfying stage of development and seize the opportunities to sell them to long-term financial investors and to replace them by more dynamic assets."