Mercialys is a French company that operates in real estate, owning and managing properties. It was created by the retailer company Casino Group in 2005.

History

In the late 1990s, the food retailer company Casino Group delegated the management of their retailer properties in a new subsidiary, Groupe Casino Immobilière. In 2005, it was turned into a company with independent operations, which would go public itself, called Mercialys, although Groupe Casino retained a majority stake and therefore its control. Mercialys was listed on the Paris Bourse on November 1, 2005. The new company opted for the SIIC legal tax status for real estate investment trusts.

Activities

Mercialys

lease A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...

s its properties (mostly shopping malls, self-service restaurants and other vendor locations) to retailer companies so that these exploit it. The fact Mercialys maintains retail property assets in the long run, renovating and renting them, with limited exposure to development activities, gives it an advantage and a lower risk for investors. It manages more than 120 properties, with a gross leasable area of about 714,500 m². The Mercialys' subsidiaries include Mercialys Gestion, Timur SCI, Point Confort and La Diane, among others. On March 4, 2012, Mercialys issued a bond to seven years, raising 650 million. Also, it took debt from five banks to finance a 1.25 billion euros exceptional distribution for shareholders. It was supposed that these operations were carried out to fund Casino Group projects in Brazil.

Ownership

As of January 31 of 2020, the company reported the following composition in the ownership of shares: * 61.28% Public *25.16%

Casino Group Casino Group or Casino Guichard-Perrachon is a French mass-market retail group. It was founded on 2 August 1898 by Geoffroy Guichard under the corporate name Guichard-Perrachon & Co. Casino Group is the source of many innovations, such as the ...

*8.01%

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*5.00%

Crédit Agricole Crédit Agricole Group (), sometimes called La banque verte (, , due to its historical ties to farming), is a French international banking group and the world's largest cooperative financial institution. It is the second largest bank in France, ...

corporate and Investment Bank *0.38% Treasury shares *0.18% Foncière Euris On February 9, 2012, Casino confirmed its intention of reducing participation in Mercialys to 30 or 40 percent with the aim of obtain by 800 million euros. On 4 May 2012, it announced the selling of a 9.8 percent to Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, a subsidiary of

, receiving 138 million euros and thus reducing its stake to 40.2 percent.

References

{{Authority control Real estate companies established in 2005 French companies established in 2005 Companies based in Paris Real estate companies of France Companies listed on Euronext Paris