Value Retail, the owner of Kildare Village fashion retail centre, has shifted control of its almost €6 billion European portfolio of outlets centres from the UK to its Irish operation, in a move that the company says was spurred by Brexit.
The Value Retail group the UK listed co-owner of Dundrum Town Centre, and Scott Malkin a New York property heir whose father owned the Empire State Building.
In addition to Kildare Village, it also owns eight other outlets centres in Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, Germany and the UK, including the huge Bicester Village near London. They generated retail sales last year of €2.9 billion across more than 1,000 outlet stores, with brands such as Armani and Calvin Klein.
In recent weeks, Value Retail Management Ireland, the local entity that runs Kildare Village, has assumed ownership stakes in seven of the eight of the other European centres. It issued shares at nominal values to group companies in the UK as consideration for assuming control in a sweeping restructuring.
The Irish company has taken complete control of Value Retail’s operation in Germany, where it has centres in Frankfurt and Munich, and Italy, where it operates Fidenza Village near Bologna.
Company documents show that the Irish company has also assumed stakes in the Spanish operation, which includes La Roca Village in Barcelona, Brussels, and France, which includes the famous La Vallée Village in Paris. It is unclear from the documents whether these are majority or minority stakes. Control of Bicester Village did not transfer to the Kildare Village entity.
