Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has taken over the Boultbee Brothers' remaining 51% stake in the Swedish shopping centre portfolio CentrumKompaniet.
The banking giant now has full ownership of Centeni, the former joint venture company established by UK private investment firm Boutlbee and collapsed investment bank Lehman Brothers to acquire 10 shopping centres in Stockholm.

Centeni bought the portfolio back in 2007 from the municipality of Stockholm for SEK 10 bn (then about EUR 1 bn ), in a deal financed by a consortium of seven banks led by RBS. The financial structure of the portfolio came under pressure after Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008.

RBS already owned Lehman's 49% stake in the JV, and the bank signed a debt restructuring deal in mid-February 2011 with Boultbee, which provided for the handover by Boultbee of operational control in Centeni. As part of the deal, the company also appointed a new board and RBS secured an option to buy Boultbee's shares in the company.

'We had an option to buy the stake and we decided to exercise it,' Anna Törnerud, spokesperson for RBS, told PropertyEU. 'However, we have had control of the company since February when we appointed a new management board.' Centeni's chairman Lars Söderqvist said RBS's latest move 'further clarifies the ownership of the portfolio as requested by the tenants of the properties'.

The shopping centre assets are now said to be valued at about EUR 800 mln. They comprise Tensta, Rinkeby, Hässelby Gård, Älvsjö, Högdalen, Bredäng, Västermalmsgallerian, Ringen, Fältöversten and SKHLM. The portfolio provides a total lettable area of around 350,000 m2 and has a value-added profile as most of the assets need repositioning.

RBS is widely expected to put the Swedish retail properties obtained from the Boultbee Brothers back on the market in the short term. 'Everybody is expecting a sale. The question is more whether RBS wants to structure it as a portfolio sale or as a disposal of individual assets,' one source who asked to remain anonymous commented.

'We may open the company's capital to other shareholders but at this stage it is too early to say,' a spokesperson for RBS said.

Potential bidders are likely to be international opportunity funds, large global fund managers as well as domestic pension funds, market watchers say.

RBS is aggressively seeking to reduce its exposure to property loans across Europe. In late March, it sold a portfolio of Spanish commercial property loans with a face value of EUR 290 mln to US private equity firm Perella Weinberg and is still looking for a buyer for its corporate loan portfolio in the country. According to UK press reports, the bank has also shortlisted Blackstone, Lone Star, Starwood and Westbrook as potential buyers for a £1.6 bn non-core UK property loan portfolio for sale.