Prelios' shares gained nearly 10% reaching EUR 0.27 per share on Wednesday after the company announced the closing of the sale of the Karstadt Oberpollinger and Karstadt Sports properties in Munich for around EUR 248 mln. The assets were sold for a price in line with market value to a joint venture of Austria's Signa Group and Dusseldorf-based Centrum Group.

René Benko of Signa and Uwe Reppegather of Centrum have formed a 50/50 partnership to buy the two retail properties from the Highstreet consortium, comprising Goldman Sachs' Whitehall Funds (51%), Deutsche Bank's RREEF funds (24%), Milan-based Prelios, (12%), Generali (11%) and the Borletti Group. Prelios is the portfolio's asset manager.

The transaction - which was first announced in June - is being financed by Bank Bayerische Landesbank for the Karstadt Sports shop and by an Eurohypo-led bank consortium for the Oberpollinger asset.

The Karstadt Oberpollinger offers around 29,000 m2 of retail space across four floors, while the neighbouring Karstadt sports shop involves around 10,500 m2 of retail space. Both assets are fully leased on the long term to Karstadt.

The operations represent the second joint venture between Signa and Centrum after the acquisition and development of the Sevens shopping centre in Dusseldorf.