Investors might be skittish about what is happening in Europe, but that's apparently not impacting Simon Property Group's view of the continent's consumer health. The largest mall owner in the country agreed to drop $2 billion on a majority stake in Klepierre, which owns 271 centers in 13 European countries.
Simon didn't just purchase overseas. The REIT also bought out its partner Farallon Capital Management, acquiring all of the 26 high-profile Mills assets the two purchased in 2007 for $1.8 billion.
This shows that Simon isn't afraid to buy in this environment...even in Europe, which is not getting favorable press right now. But maybe Simon is onto something. Asian investors seem interested in Europe now as well, even more so than the US, as GlobeSt.com found at the recent MPIM conference in Cannes, France.
The Mills deal just seems to make sense, since Farallon likely only wanted to own their share of the assets for a limited time. Many of the malls have favorable occupancy rates, with the exception of a few underperforming assets that were packaged in the original deal and a couple in recession-hit areas, from looking at Simon's annual report (PDF).
One analyst in an above-linked Bloomberg report says that Simon's play in Europe is due to there being less opportunities in the US. Do you think that there is less for Simon to do here? And do you find the REIT's big acquisition in Europe at all risky?
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