Good morning, everyone. I'm very pleased to welcome you today with Jean-Michel for the 2019 full-year earnings of Klépierre. We will make a short presentation, and we will leave the floor to the questions. Starting with the presentation, I would like to make a statement that 2019 has been an additional year where we have keep on executing our strategy, which we believe is a winning strategy in a retail environment, which is transforming. This is a year where we have posted robust results and the net current cash flow per share is growing by 6.7% to EUR 2.82. This is the outcome of a strategy that we have started five or six years ago, and the three pillars of this strategy are very clear to us.
The first one is to focus on pre-eminent assets in large cities and large catchment area, and we'll come back on that. The second one is to have a platform where the teams are customer-centric, and I would say also customer-focused or even obsessed by the customer satisfaction. The third pillar is the financial discipline. These are the three elements for us to weather the retail transformation that we are all facing. The first pillar is clearly to be focused on large cities, large catchment area, where the population is more than a million inhabitants, and the average revenue per capita is 20% above the national revenue per capita. We have today, over the years, a fantastic refocus of the portfolio, and Klépierre today is more than just 100 properties, representing 96% of the total value. It was 94% in 2017.
We think we have achieved today a fantastic refocus, and we will continue disposing non-core assets as we have done this year. Most of the refocus is achieved. The second pillar is to be customer-centric. I think, because of the size of the platform and because of the quality of the team and our pan-European footprint, we have deployed a very systematic approach. You all know four pillars. The first one is Retail First, and Retail First is all about changing the mix and improving the quality of retail and also hosting new occupiers in our malls. The second pillar is Let's Play. Let's Play is to make our malls more entertaining and to increase engagement and loyalty. The third one is Clubstore.
It's all about making our shopping center more pleasant, to improve the customer journey, and to have a sense of hospitality and to offer a seamless experience to our customers. Last but not least, which is not something we do on the side, but which is Act for Good. Act for Good is to make sure that our operations and growing our cash flow is also made with a sustainability approach, that we want our operations to be sustainable. We can measure it. You will see during the presentation that it's not only a vision, it's something we can clearly measure. We have growing sales. Sales are doing better than national indexes. We have also a very strong occupier demand. It's not only retail demand, but many type of occupiers. We are also changing fast and adapting the mix in our malls.
We have an increasing satisfaction that we measure with NPS. NPS in our portfolio has increased by eight points in 2019. The third pillar is to be financially discipline. We have continued in 2019 to dispose non-core assets. We have sold for a little bit more than EUR 500 million with a 6.8% net initial yield. We were 6.1% above book value. With the proceeds, we have done some share buyback as planned with a 8.9% cash flow yield. We have also reinjected the proceeds in very accretive pipeline projects, we'll come back on that, with a 6.6% yield average. When we look back at what this has been doing over the last five years, you will see that the cash flow of Klépierre has increased by more than 30% since 2015.
The net debt to EBITDA has decreased also very significantly from 9.2 x to 8 x. In view of this strategy and our earnings in 2019, we are going to present to the shareholders a dividend of EUR 2.2, which is an increase of 4.8% compared to 2018. We are pretty confident for the future because we think that the strategy is very clear, the strategy is paying off, and we have a financial discipline that will also pay off. We have basically three items that you need to keep in mind. We have a low OCR, probably one of the lowest in the industry.
We have also a very low net debt to EBITDA, a reasonable payout, and we can easily invest in our properties and deploy our strategy. If we focus now to 2019 has been a very strong year in terms of net rental income, like-for-like. You can see that we are positive everywhere but in Germany. We are posting very strong results in Iberia, 7.8%, Netherlands 5.5%, Italy 3.2%. This is also one of the benefit of being Pan-European, is that we can take advantage of the different macroeconomies that are in Europe. They are never all synchronized. Over the time, this is a great support of the resilience and the growing cash flow for Klépierre. We have also significantly increased our specialty leasing income by more than 7% in 2019. We have been also very dynamic in terms of leasing.
The number of leases is almost 1,600, and the average reversion is 8.2%. This has, as you can see, more than dynamic in Iberia and Italy, where we are double-digit reversion, and we are also posting excellent figures in the other countries, but in Germany. When we look at the other main KPIs of 2019, we can see that the EPRA vacancy rate is 3%. We are back to the level we were before we acquired Corio, if you remember, 3%. So this shows that the platform through the various disposal is improving constantly. The bad debt, which is also a sign of the solidity of our tenant base, is at a record low at 1.6%, and the occupancy cost ratio, as I mentioned, is pretty stable around 12.4%. This has been done in a retail environment where sales are growing.
Sales are growing almost everywhere but in Scandinavia. We have seen over H2 a slight improvement compared to H1, and the growth of sales over 2019 is double than the growth we have registered in 2018. Would like to focus a little bit on two pillars and what we have done this year on two of our operational pillars. The first one is Retail First. Retail First for us is to proactively adapting the mix to consumer expectations. We have been doing that for more than five years now, and we did it proactively. The second one is to ease the transition to omnichannel. What does it mean? It's to provide to the retailers the best real estate for them to invest into their stores and to adapt their new format.
We are doing this also to take advantage of the retail concentration to make sure that the investment from our retailers are made in our malls and not in the competing schemes. When we look a little bit more in the details, we have categories where our retailers, we have a very strong deal flow with our key accounts, and we keep signing a lot of deals with all of them. Those are a few examples out of the 1,600 leases we have signed. You can see that with Inditex group, we have signed more than 20 deals and Rituals more than 40. We keep on leveraging the platform, the leasing platform in Europe. We are also attracting new players. It's something that is more and more important in our leasing strategy. We have a few names on the page.
Probably a few of you are aware of or used to see them. Shein is the first one. It's a fashion retailer. We have done fantastic pop-up stores with them in France, and they have been attracting a lot of customers. It has been really great. Oakley is sunglasses. They were only an online business, and now they are opening stores. It's a mix of automotive, as you can see on the slide. Automotive is also a way for those brands and those banners to showcase their innovation. As you know, automotive business is transforming fast, so they use our malls as the best way for them, the best media to reach their customers. It's DNVBs and also what is quite in line with our Act for Good strategy is to give a chance to local niche brands that are also very attractive.
We are also widening the offer in our malls from value retailers to upscale brands. In Emporia, in Malmö, we have a mix of URB, and that probably you don't know, it's a little bit an equivalent to Primark or Action, but we also have a Chanel store, and we have a Hugo Boss store. We are also enlarging the offer to reach more customers. We are also supporting brands that are going retail. They are retail brands, but they were not used to have shops in malls. A few example, like Dyson, we have opened six stores with Dyson in our malls, and they are also doing fine. We have all the OUI, AM:AI doing great. Daniel Wellington, this is watches, also developing fast in our shopping centers. Last but not least, we are offering more than shopping. We already mentioned it many times.
In our strategy, which is shop, meet, connect, we need to offer more than shop. places where people can meet and connect and have other reasons to come to a mall. Two examples, which are very opposite, I would say. We have opened a 4,000 sq m hospital. It's a real one. In Guimarães, in Portugal. We have opened a ballet company, a ballet studio in Field's in Copenhagen. In terms of numbers, we are moving fast. We are changing the mix fast to adapt to the retail transformation and the new customer expectations. A few numbers here in 2019. This is the number of stores that have been renewed, re-leased in percentage. You can see that in Milanofiori, in Milan, we have changed in a year 36% of the mix, upgrading it.
In Oslo, it was 22%, Parque Nascente 18%, in Aqua Portimão in Portugal 16%, and in La Gavia in Madrid 15%. They are also tremendous numbers, which give us comfort that the leasing is very vibrant. We also measure it by the investment that the retailers are doing in our malls. We are very careful that when we do a releasing or a renewal, the retailers are making the new store format, and that they are investing in their stores. When we measure it in 2019, it's almost EUR 500 million that has been invested by our retailers in our malls. I think it's a good sign that they favor our mall long term. The second pillar is Act for Good. Act for Good is not something we do on the side to tick the boxes.
This is something we have put in the middle of our operations. We think that there is a growing aspiration from the customers to have operations that are more sustainable, more local, and more social. This strategy is clearly embedded in our leasing and Let's Play policy. We are moving fast. We are moving fast, and we are doing very well. We have decreased our energy consumption by 29% since 2013, and we are clearly on track to reduce our energy consumption by 40% in 2022. We have also completely renewed our energy supply. We have more than 93% of our electricity, which is purchased from renewable sources. We have, as you know, a target in 2030 to have a portfolio which is carbon neutral. When you look at the chart, we have decreased by 72% our carbon footprint since 2013.
We are also moving fast in that direction to answer to the customer aspirations. Our portfolio, also, we are the first REIT in the world to have its portfolio certified as a portfolio by BREEAM. When we look at the outcome, 95% of the portfolio is either excellent or very good. This was a target we had for 2022, and we had achieved it three years ahead of time. We are also engaging with our communities to make our shopping centers more local and more social. This is just one example of what we are doing. We think that the community of people working in our malls, they need to have a sense and a purpose in working in our malls.
We have deployed an app, which is called Let's Join, which is an app where we share information and services and dedicated services to the retailer staff and to the supplier staff, and it's doing pretty well. When we measure the satisfaction of our customers, we have our NPS, Net Promoter Score, that has increased by eight points since 2018, which is really a great achievement. Now focusing on the capital allocation. In 2019, we have sold or signed agreements to dispose EUR 645 million of non-core assets. It was done at 6.1% above book value, which give us comfort about the valuations. This was done at a 6.8% net initial yield. This was a little bit inflated by the disposal in Central Europe, where the yields are historically higher. When we took out the Central Europe disposal, we were around 6.3%.
We have, as I indicated, reinvested in an accretive way in our portfolio. We have done a share buyback. We have done a new development project, and I will come back on that. We have also done a small but very interesting acquisition by taking 10% of Belle Épine, which is one of the largest shopping center in the south of Paris. 2019 has been the milestone in 2019 for the development activity has been the opening of Créteil Soleil. This is an 11,000 sq m extension. It was 100% let at opening. It was a yield on cost of 6.1% precisely. Since opening, the footfall has increased by 19%. Gran Reno, the construction is underway. We are pre-let at 56%. This is a 25,000 sq m extension in Bologna. This is one of the wealthiest region in Italy. I think it's even the wealthiest region.
As you can see, we have a lineup of tenants, which is also very attractive. The next one on the agenda is the extension of Grand Place. It's in Grenoble in France. This is an extension of 16,000 sq m. We are already 56% pre-let. You can see that one of the tenant would be Primark. I think this will help us to increase the footfall of this already 11 million footfall shopping mall. Work should be started H1 2020. Now I will leave the floor to Jean-Michel to go through the financial numbers.
Thank you, Jean-Marc, and good morning everyone. Let me start this finance section with a traditional one, the bridge of our net current cash flow from 2018 to 2019. As you can see, we continue to grow our cash flow at a sustained pace. For 2019, we posted a 6.7% growth. Once again, it is a very solid performance. As in previous years, the main driver of our net cash flow growth is a 3% like-for-like NRI growth that Jean-Marc mentioned earlier. The reduction in our financial cost also contributed to the cash flow growth quite substantially. I will discuss this in more detail in the next slide.
Regarding the capital allocation, the dilutive impact of disposals completed in Italy and Hungary at the end of 2018 and the disposal in France, Portugal, and Hungary in 2019, were slightly higher than positive contribution from recent development and the share buyback. You may recall that our share buyback program is implemented at a similar pace as one of disposal. Overall, excluding a recent one-off element, our net current cash flow grew by 5.6% to EUR 2.79 per share, way above our initial guidance of EUR 2.72-EUR 2.75. This one-off element, just to come back on this, is a financial income of EUR 9 million corresponding to the compensation received by Klépierre on a cash deposit we made to the tax German authorities in connection with the tax litigation incurred by Corio prior its merger with Klépierre. A quick word on our cost of debt now.
As you can see on this chart, it continue on its downward path to reach a low 1.45%. As you remember, we mentioned in our half year 2019 presentation that we still had EUR 1.8 billion of debt at an average cost of 2.7% to refinance by 2022. We will get some of the benefit of the refinancing in the next 18 months, as we expect to get lower coupons, bearing in mind that we have already swapped to float some of them when interest rates were higher. That is to say, a couple of months ago. This should allow us to keep lowering our cost of debt, going forward, considering especially the outstanding access to liquidity we have. I think this access to liquidity is one of the main strengths of Klépierre. As shown in this chart, our credit spread is one of the lowest in the REIT industry.
This is a consequence of the strength of our balance sheet and a reflex of our A- rating, in which we are well anchored with an outlook stable. We checked the solidity of our credit when we last issued bond in June 2019. We got a 45 basis points, as you probably remember, for an 11-year maturity, pointing to a 0.625% coupon. Looking at today's market condition, despite a slight increase in spread, we would get the same pricing as the spread increase has been offset by the decrease in interest rate. No material change on this front. Very good financing condition for Klépierre going forward. In 2019, our net debt decreased by EUR 45 million, let's say broadly flat, and stood at EUR 8,830 million at year-end. Consequently, our net debt to EBITDA declined to eight times, compared to 8.3 x last year.
This, combined with the 6.5 years average maturity of our debt, make our financial profile even more robust. Let's look now at valuation. The valuation of our portfolio, I would like to underline that the investment market has comforted us to a certain extent. First, we have seen landmark retail transaction in the continent that give good signs of liquidity for quality asset at decent prices. Second, as Jean-Marc said, we have been able to sell for EUR 530 million of worth of asset above book value. We are confident that the values in our book reflect what the market currently prices. Overall, the change in the second half, - 1.1%, was quite similar to what we have seen in the first half. I remember you, it was a - 0.9%. Our EPRA net initial yield stood at 5%, a 10 basis points increase compared to six months ago.
In relative terms, compared to a blended risk-free rate of 0.7%, the net initial yield of our portfolio materializes 430 basis points risk premium. This risk is the widest seen in a decade. Some remember probably higher yields in the past, but never such low risk-free rate. The slight decline of the portfolio value was entirely due to a - 2.3% market effect, while the cash flow effect was slightly positive. I would consider this is probably the main thing and the most important one, at + 0.3%, as illustrated by the change in the appraiser main assumptions.
When looking at the changes and getting to give you more details on how the valuation have been done, in this assumption taken by the appraiser compared to 12 months ago, it was noting a broadly stable discount rate, which is a consequence of a higher risk premium and a lower risk-free rate. The exit rate increased very slightly. On top of the element I've just mentioned for the discount rate, this change was also driven by lower indexation going forward. The decrease by indexation by valuers has been for about 13 basis points into the discounted cash flow calculation. It's also worth noting the change in scope that tends to lower the discount rate and the exit rate as the assets sold in Hungary and Portugal were yielding higher.
Regarding the NRI forecast, thanks to healthy renewal and despite a slightly lower indexation assumption, NRI growth forecast is an average 2.4% and was lowered by 12 basis points. Moving now to NAV. The evolution in the portfolio valuation I just described below translates into a EUR 1 decline in our EPRA NAV per share, - 2.3% over the 12 months, which stood at EUR 39.50 at the end of December 2019. The main items explaining the evolution are a strong cash flow generation, EUR 282 per share, more than offset by the portfolio downward repricing, EUR 144, and the dividend payment for EUR 2.10. Forex and other operating and financial costs were responsible for an additional EUR 0.20 reduction in NAV.
This mainly includes non-recurring costs that were not fully offset by the impact of the disposal above book value and the relative effect of the share buyback. Our triple net NAV stood at EUR 37.40 per share or 4% decrease. The gap compared to NAV reflect the impact of the fair market value of the fixed rate debt, which was hampered by the drop in interest rates, especially during the first half. Before moving to the dividend payment, I would like to dwell on our uses and sources of cash. Once again, in 2019, our net current cash flow more than covered the dividend and distribution to minority partners, as well as maintenance CapEx, which amounted to EUR 98 million, of which EUR 25 million are recharged to tenants, below last year level, which were EUR 127 million.
As you can see on this slide, our cash flow was even sufficient to finance a large part of our EUR 205 million in development CapEx as well. Our second source of cash comes from the disposal proceeds, which reached EUR 537 million. EUR 300 million of this was allocated to our share buyback and roughly EUR 90 million to the acquisition of a 10% stake of Belle Épine, a leading mall in southern Paris, already managed by Klépierre for many years. The balance between these different items went to pay down our debt, as I told you previously, EUR -45 million. Last but not least, to conclude this financial part, a word on the dividend. At the next shareholder meeting, we will propose a dividend of EUR 2.20 per share, an increase of 4.8% versus last year.
This represents 79% of Klépierre net current cash flow. Group share, excluding the one-off. This sizable increase demonstrate our confidence in our ability to keep delivering sustainable dividend growth going forward. The distribution of the EUR 2.20 breaks down EUR 0.59 for the SIIC, and EUR 0.85 as an equity repayment. As last year, the dividend will be paid in two equal installment of EUR 1.10, the first one in March 11, and the second one in July 9th.
As a very last few words, because I can't resist, I wanted to comment on this graph. As you can see, growing the dividend regularly is a longstanding tradition in Klépierre. Indeed, it never decreased over the last 20 years. As Jean-Marc mentioned in his introduction, we believe it should continue going forward. This is all for me now, and I leave to Jean-Marc the floor for a quick conclusion and the outlook.
Thank you, Jean-Michel. Just a quick wrap-up. This has been a very good year, 3% like-for-like net rental income. In the current environment, this is, I believe, quite outstanding. That confirmed the quality of the strategy. 5.6% net cash flow when we exclude the one-off. That's also very strong. We keep disposing assets, EUR 645 million above book value. We do it at our pace. We keep the leverage in our peer group at a low level, 8 x net debt to EBITDA. We have a strong balance sheet to finance our development and our organic growth, and we pay a dividend, which is 4.8% increase to last year. I think it was a very good year. When we look at 2020, we are also very confident to continue growing the business and growing the cash flow.
We will propose a guidance for the net current cash flow to be between EUR 285 and EUR 290. You have to keep in mind that we have sold more than EUR 500 million, we are also losing cash flow. We are offsetting it with the share buyback, the guidance also take into account the fact that we are a net seller in 2019. Now I will leave the floor to the questions, in the room and online.
Hello. Thank you very much for the presentation. Florent Joubert from Oddo BHF. I would have three questions, if I may. First question, about your reversion in Iberia and Central Europe. You have huge reversions in this country in 2019. How sustainable are this reversion in the future? This would be my first question. Second question, is it possible to have maybe more colors about your expectation in terms of disposals of non-strategic asset for 2020? Maybe third question, we have seen that we have a repricing of your asset, in half one 2019 and at the end of 2019. What is the comfort of this repricing? Have we to expect another repricing at the next publication? What is your opinion on that? Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Your first question was about the reversion in Central Europe and Spain?
Yes.
I think the fundamentals of the economies in Spain, Portugal, and Central Europe are very strong. We have a GDP growth in Central Europe, which is exceeding 3%. We have sales going up also more than 5%. In Iberia, the GDP growth is a little bit softer than last year, but it's one of the highest in Europe. We are benefiting from a recovery cycle and also a boost of GDP. They are exceptional numbers, so we don't expect to do that forever. We are also very positive for the years to come. We have a portfolio which is very well-positioned in those countries, and they are also very well occupied. There is a great tenant and occupier demand for those malls.
We see growing sales, we see retailer demand, we are very positive that the reversion will be strong for the years to come. For the disposals, we keep repeating that we are refocusing. We have done it. We have 4% of our portfolio which are non-core assets, we are doing it. We are selling over the last four years, we have sold EUR 500 million average. Are we going to do that in 2020? You will see. We are disciplined in refocusing our portfolio, taking advantage of the investment market, doing it above book value. We are pretty confident that the values in our books when we are disposing are pretty reasonable. 6.1% above book value, that's a good number. For the repricing of the assets, it is what it is. There is concern about liquidity. You all know that.
There is, I would say, a decent repricing. We are comfortable with it. We need to keep in mind that we are in an environment where we are still posting growth. We have retailer sales going up by almost 2%. We have like-for-like growth by 3%. We have a reversionary potential of 8% this year. The indicators are positive. There is a market effect repricing, which is probably the reflection of the investment market. For 2020 and going forward, we don't do prediction. It will be what it is. We think we have the good balance sheet. We have a strong balance sheet. We position ourselves to be, I would say, protected against the cycles and that make us very comfortable going forward.
Good morning. Pierre-Emmanuel Clouard, for Kepler Cheuvreux. Just to come back on your portfolio valuation and the decrease that occurred last year. Can you maybe give us the breakdown between big centers and the other centers, especially in France? Also, can you give us the value creation recognized in 2019 with the extension of Créteil Soleil in million EUR, please? On Belle Épine, if I'm not wrong, you are already managing the center. Maybe can you give us the rationale to buy only 10% and can we expect more on this center?
I will on the portfolio valuation, maybe Jean-Michel to
We will not disclose this level of detail of information, but just to say that the scope of yields in France, roughly speaking, goes from 4% to 6.5%, about. Jean-Marc, I think you're okay with this? This is it. We have stressed that when we dispose even secondary asset in France like we did over the past, we did it at book value. I think again, we are very convinced that our portfolio is valued in connection to the market. We were used to say that it is important to mark to market our asset, considering that we are also a seller into the market. The best way to succeed in disposal, like we succeed by selling about EUR 500 million of asset every year, is to go close to the market. On the second question.
It's about Belle Épine. CGC, the predecessor of Klépierre, they build it. We manage this shopping center since 1975. Okay. I think it was the right time to put some money in the game. As we said, this is an excellent shopping center. We are very pleased that the owners of this mall has opened the capital to us. We have taken 10%. I think it was a wise investment, and we are looking forward to continue developing this asset as a shareholder now of this asset. I think it was a good idea. Pretty small investment for Klépierre, but a very good idea. For those who knows the south of Paris and the number of malls, this is the dominant one in that catchment area. The third question was.
On Créteil
Créteil, we did, the total investment cost is around EUR 150 million with a 6% yield on cost. When you look at the net initial yield of the French portfolio, you can easily measure the value creation we have done on it.
Sorry, I think we have also some question online. For one minute we will go online. Can we get the first question online, please?
From the line-up, it's Sander Bunck from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. It's Sander Bunck from Barclays. Two questions from me, please. The first one is on your guidance, second one on the LTV. The first one on the guidance. If I take into account the disposals done in 2019, assume some further disposal in 2020, make an adjustment for share count and some financial savings, I actually get to pretty low implied NOI growth. That looks consistent with your commentary around lower indexation expectations for 2020, and slightly lower NGR uplifts in Q4. Can you just give a bit more comment on what you're seeing in terms of organic growth for 2020? Is it more that your guidance is, again, quite conservative? The second one on the LTV is that you obviously made some good disposals in 2019. Nonetheless, your LTV ticked up by around 100 basis points for a variety of reasons.
How are you thinking about that going forward and how are you thinking about, buybacks in that light? Are you looking to renew your buyback program or given the fact that your LTV is ticking up now, are you going to put that on hold once the EUR 400 million has been completed?
Okay. Thank you very much. The guidance, it is what it is. In the current environment, we think it's showing growth. We don't itemize the cooking of the guidance. There is a mix of NRI growth, disposals, acquisitions, probably share buyback.
Debt reduction
debt reduction and so on. We don't itemize, but we think the guidance has been made assuming robust organic growth in 2020.
Similar 2019 or lower?
My English, as you know, is limited. I would say similar in French sounds okay. In English probably, too. No, we are doing well. I think we are 3% like for like growth this year. This is pretty good. We will continue, I think, in 2020, delivering good, sustainable organic growth. When it comes to LTV it's a function of value and debt. I think Jean-Michel has clearly explained the financial discipline. The financial discipline of Klépierre is to make sure that we use our capital wisely, and we also use it in a way which is accretive. It's difficult to predict what we are going to do in 2021 and 2022. We will continue to be very disciplined, keeping the debt stable. That's the main assumption we have taken over the years, and this is the basis of the guidance for 2020.
We have a long-term guidance on LTV that you know, which is to be between 35% and 40% long term. We are right in the middle, we feel comfortable.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Good morning. I am Alain Boutigny. I'm back to Belle Épine. You take 10%, and how much do you have now in Belle Épine, and how much do you pay for this 10%? My second question is, on the slide 23, you talk about turnover, but is it in just in one year for this? Thank you.
Belle Épine, we can't be more specific. We bought 10% for EUR 87 million. That's it. Can't say more.
We only have 10%. We didn't own Belle Épine before.
We are the first.
Yes. This is the first. Yeah.
How much, please?
It's, I think-
80
EUR 87 Million thank you. Easy math.
For the turnaround of the retailers, yes, the figures we are mentioning here, for the most are renewals and re-lettings with the refurb of the shops in one year time. That's real numbers.
23 was the page.
I think that's where we have been very good over the years, and I would like to thank the team, is that we have been anticipating the change in retail expectation, in customer expectation almost five years ago. We have shrink quite dramatically our exposure to fashion, which is the segment which is a little bit too big today in the malls, and we are doing that pretty fast. We are developing health and beauty, sports, and other segments, and restaurants. Yes, these numbers are real numbers. I invite you to go to Assago Milan Milanofiori, and you will see that we have completely transformed this mall. We upgraded the customer journey. We refurbished the center, and we will have changed almost half of the tenants.
Something else. Do you have some fact about the Créteil Soleil extension? Does it work? Is it a success or not?
Yeah.
Créteil extension.
Yes.
Yeah. Wait and see. It opened in November. Since that date, we had a little bit of strikes, but the footfall has increased by 19%, since we have opened. The stores are doing excellent. The restaurants are fully packed. We are very optimistic. Why we think it's relevant. Créteil Soleil is 100,000 sq m mall. Okay. We are adding 10% more. We are doing more cinemas, more restaurants and few shops. I think this is a great addition to a mall which has already 21 million visitors. I think the risk reward of such development is good. As you can see, we were 100% leased at opening, which is also in the current environment, a sign of the appetite of the retailer for such malls.
As you can see on the picture, the quality of the design and the quality of the layout, is really changing the mall. The next step for us on Créteil is to do the renovation, which is underway. This will be done by the end of 2020 and we have great expectation for a center, we want it to be the best mall in the east of Paris. That's the ambition. Okay, thank you. I think we have another question on the phone.
The next question comes from the line of Jonathan Kownator from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Three questions actually, if I may. One, to come back on Belle Épine, can you just clarify if the owner has asked you, in effect, to take skin in the game, or if you knocked on the door and wanted to own 10% of the center? That's the first question. The second question on the, CapEx like-to-like, can you perhaps give a bit more color on the reduction from EUR 127 million to EUR 98 million, and what you expect is a recurring level over time?
More specifically, if you can comment on the performance of Germany, particularly obviously on the rental adjustments and also on Scandinavia, the level of sales was perhaps a bit disappointing from retailers, and give a bit more color on that as well? Thank you.
Thank you, Jonathan, for not the three question, but four. Belle Épine, we didn't expect that we will have so many questions about it, but, so Belle Épine, it's a mix of skin in the game and knocking at the door, but the skin is not blocking the door. Once more, it's a good acquisition. We are very happy to have done it. For the CapEx, I think we are as transparent as possible on the CapEx. We have three CapEx line. We have the CapEx for maintenance, which are mainly all of it, or almost all of it is recharged to the tenant. We have a leasing CapEx to host new retailers, and we have renovation CapEx. The numbers we are posting is not fluctuating that much between a year to another for a portfolio of EUR 24 billion or EUR 23 billion.
We think it's a decent level of CapEx, and it shows also that there is not an inflated number of tenant incentive. We think we can run the business with that level of CapEx going forward. Moving to Germany. Germany, I don't know how long I will have to make the same answer to the same question. That's the German portfolio from Corio has been over-rented, so we are marketing the rents. We did it for Duisburg, we did it for Dresden this year, and we will do Berlin in 2021. When it will be done, this will be stabilized. We are happy with the portfolio. These three assets are doing quite okay in a German environment where sales are slightly increasing. The occupancy is growing and more importantly, the tenant mix is changing.
Our leasing platform enable us to change the mix significantly. We have introduced many Inditex brands, and other brands that were not in the malls and are doing pretty well. One more year to go and German will be done.
Sorry, Jean-Marc, I probably asked the question already many times before, but aren't you upscaling Germany and why you effectively stay in the country?
We have not been asked to get out. No. Once more, we create value. Those assets, we knew that they had to be turned around and to be re-leased and to be re-marketed. This is what we are doing, and I'm pretty optimistic that in 2021, this will be done. Scandinavia, sales are a little bit disappointing, I confess. The fashion segment in Scandinavia, like everywhere in the world, is decreasing. We are currently replacing fashion by other segments. We are in that phase, and that's why you can see that sales are a little bit disappointing mainly in Norway. We are on it. We also have to remind ourselves that sales were +6%, +5%, +6% in the three years in 2015, 2016, and 2014. They were also very high. This is an adjustment.
We don't see a long-term trend there.
It's a mixed effect and not necessarily underlying macro effect that you're outlining?
No, I think it's mainly coming from the fashion segment. You know that the Scandinavia, the fashion segment is mainly local players, and like everywhere in the world, those players are restructuring and they are changing their business model. We are changing the mix, and this is going to improve.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. I think there is one more question on the phone.
The next question comes from the line of Bart Gysens from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Yes, very well.
Hi. Klépierre is now the most highly rated retail REIT in Europe. Many of your peers are trading materially wider on NAV. You've got a very strong balance sheet, just a bit like your main shareholder, Simon. Simon has been buying retailers recently, and this week it's also been linked to potentially buy another retail REIT. Is that something that, obviously don't expect you to comment on M&A, but could you revisit your acquisitive approach again at some point? Thank you.
I think your questions are, and thank you for them, but you take the precaution to say that we are not going to answer. That's what we are going to do. We don't comment what peers are doing. They do what they can, and you need to ask them, and we leave that to the others. For buying retailers, I think you should also ask the question to David Simon. He had his earnings a day ago and had a lot of questions about it. I think today, this is not on the agenda for us. No more comment.
Just to say also that we are very concentrated on the business itself, on our operation. This is where we pay most of our attention today to improve our portfolio and to continue to deliver very good operational results.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We have a question on the web from Vishal Lakhani with Exane BNP Paribas. It's interesting to hear of alternative uses such as the hospital in Guimarães. Specifically on the hospital, what rent do they pay, and how does it compare to previous occupiers or major space users?
I think we need to look at the business as a whole. If we want to itemize one by one, everybody is going to get confused. We are signing 1,600 leases a year. We have more than 10,000 leases. What we try to do is to give more reasons for the people to come in our mall. We are footfall and sales driven. The strategy for us is to combine shop, meet, connect, so not only shop, giving more reasons for the people to come, to connect, to meet. This is a fundamental element in keeping the attractiveness of our malls. I will not comment on the specific deals, and I have nothing to hide, but I think this is not the purpose of doing it.
Last but not least, I think what is important in our industry today is that there is a growing aspiration for customers for more environment, more social, and more local. That's a growing concern. That's a growing aspiration. Every time we go in that direction, Act for Good in leasing. We are increasing footfall, and we are also increasing dwelling time, and we are making our places more vibrant. At the end of the day, this is what we are doing, and this is what we should do. I would say we don't see it as a drag to our growth profile. This is contributing to the growth. This is improving occupancy everywhere. This is a positive impact to the organic growth of the company.
Okay. I think we have no more question on the phone or online. I don't know if we have some more in the room. One, two, three. Okay. Jean-Marc.
Thank you very much for attending, and for your questions. We hope the answers have been right and precise and see you soon, all of you.
Thank you.
Have a good day.
Thank you. Bye-bye.