Kimco, RioCan Unwind Canadian Real-Estate Venture

By Carolyn King 

Kimco Realty Corp. and RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust on Thursday said they would unwind their 15-year real-estate joint venture in Canada, with RioCan acquiring Kimco's stakes in 22 properties for about 485 million Canadian dollars ($363 million) and another 10 properties being put up for sale.

The shopping-center operators said the move enables New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Kimco to continue to shed properties held in joint ventures, simplifying its operations while bolstering its balance sheet.

Toronto-based RioCan, meanwhile, will have a higher concentration of assets in Canada's six largest markets, including the Toronto region.

"Our long-standing relationship with RioCan has been excellent, and this transaction allows both companies to pursue their own longer term strategic objectives," Kimco Chief Executive Dave Henry said in a statement.

"It is an exceptionally rare opportunity to acquire a selection of properties from a portfolio of this scale that can be easily absorbed by the Trust," said RioCan Chief executive Edward Sonshine.

The companies valued the deal at C$715 million, including debt assumption. RioCan will acquire Kimco's interests in 22 of their 35 jointly owned properties in two stages, the bulk in the current quarter. The companies will seek to sell another 10 retail assets in their portfolio in the first half of next year. They described the assets as of institutional quality and said one is conditionally sold.

The three remaining properties will be dealt with at a future date, the companies noted. Those three properties were previously occupied by Target Corp., which withdrew from the Canadian market early this year.

Write to Carolyn King at [e-mail]

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September 24, 2015 10:45 ET (14:45 GMT)

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