The decision to sell its shopping center assets across the region is part of the company’s debt reduction strategy which was set in 2014. The aim of the company is to lower dept in order to focus on developing its core business, which is retail of fast-moving consumer goods.
All of the properties are being sold under a sale-leaseback plan, which will allow Mercator to remain operating within the shopping centers as a tenant. In February, Mercator completed the sale of 10 shopping centers in Slovenia to Austria’s Supernova group for 116.6 million EUR. On the 31st of March 2019, the company reported a net financial debt of 666.8 million EUR, which was 18.2 percent down compared to the same period last year. The strategic goal of the company is to further reduce its debt in order to provide financial resources for new investments in its retail business by 2021.
