Swedish home furnishings retailer IKEA’s shopping malls business, Ingka Centres, plans to enter the United States retail market in the coming years and is in talks to acquire central real estate assets in major cities, according to a report from Reuters.
Gerard Groener, managing director of Ingka Centres, said his company was in several negotiations for inner-city real estate. New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago locations are its first priorities, he added.
”We are in a very active search. Maybe it’s a good time to buy now. I’d say it’s more a buyers’ market than a sellers’ market currently in the U.S.So hopefully we can be successful now, with the timing,” Groener told Reuters.
Ingka Group consists of three business areas which are IKEA Retail, Ingka Centres and Ingka Investments.
Ingka Group’s core business is IKEA Retail, which consists of 374 IKEA stores across 30 markets. Ingka Centres which are all anchored by an IKEA store, has 45 shopping malls across Europe, Russia and China. Ingka Investments is the investment arm of Ingka Group. From 2020 Ingka Investments is investing in commercial real estate, enabling IKEA Retail to open IKEA stores in city centres
