Acquisitions
In Paris Vastned has expanded its cluster in the popular Le Marais district with two core city assets.

The first property is the corner shop on Rue des Francs Bourgeois 12, which was bought for € 16.0 million including acquisition costs. The property was purchased without a tenant; prior to the acquisition Vastned signed a lease with a new retailer, which will take effect as of 2 January 2019. The broker for this transaction was Dominique Moati of 3 SIX 9.

The second property is Rue des Francs Bourgeois 10, which is leased to Guerlain. The purchase price was € 12.0 million including acquisition costs.

Vastned now has seven retail properties in Le Marais with a total value of approximately € 85 million, making it one of the biggest retail property owners in this district.

In Madrid Calle de Fuencarral 27 was bought for € 4.2 million including acquisition costs. It is leased to Comptoir des Cotonniers. The adjoining property is also owned by Vastned; it is leased to Birkenstock.

In Amsterdam Reguliersdwarsstraat 80-84 was bought for € 5.7 million including acquisition costs. This concerns three connected properties, of which the ground floor is leased to Italian restaurant Sale e Pepe. Above the restaurant are six apartments, of which one large apartment will be split into two and will be fully renovated. The seller was Heeneman & Partners, which was advised by P van den Bosch Retail.

Divestments
Vastned has sold a number of non-strategic properties in the Netherlands and France for € 5.3 million in total. In the Netherlands, the following mixed retail locations were sold: Oosterdijk 58 in Sneek, Ruiterskwartier 127 and 135 in Leeuwarden, Friesestraat 14 and Weeshuisstraat 9 in Coevorden, Kerkstraat 87 in Hilversum, Grote Bredeplaats 26 and Kleine Bredeplaats 8-10 in Harlingen, Nieuwstad 57-59 in Doetinchem and Hoofdstraat 157 in Hoogeveen. In France, the remaining units in Centre Commercial Beaubreuil and Centre Commercial Limoges Corgnac were sold, as a result of which our stakes in both shopping centres in Limoges have now been fully divested.

Leasing activity
Last week, Vastned reached broad agreement with an international retailer for the lease of Calle Serrano 36 in Madrid. The lease is expected to be signed in the short term; at that point the name of the retailer will be disclosed.

Nomination of new Supervisory Board member
During the AGM on 18 April 2019, Mr Jaap Blokhuis will be nominated for appointment as a new Supervisory Board member of Vastned for a four-year term. Jaap Blokhuis started his career with Nationale-Nederlanden Vastgoed/ING Real Estate, where he focused on residential and retail property, asset management and fund management. From 1999 to 2012, he was CEO of Redevco, where he was responsible for transforming the company into an independent asset management and development company. Between 2014 and 2017 Mr Blokhuis was CEO of Multi Corporation, where he was responsible for (re)development and the transformation of the company towards a company focused on retail asset management. Mr Blokhuis is current on the Supervisory Boards of Vesteda and Heembouw, and an advisor to Egeria Real Estate. The nominee Supervisory Board member will succeed Mr Jeroen Hunfeld, whose last term of office is ending.

Nomination of CEO for reappointment
During the AGM on 18 April 2019, the Supervisory Board will nominate Mr Taco de Groot for reappointment as statutory director of Vastned in the position of CEO. The reappointment of Taco de Groot as CEO of Vastned will be for a four-year term.

Tax Transparency Benchmark
On 22 November 2018, the Dutch Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VBDO) presented the ‘Tax Transparency Benchmark 2018', a report in which 76 Dutch listed companies are compared in the area of tax transparency. With 20 points, Vastned achieved the highest score in the property sector, and became joint eighth of the 76 companies investigated.