Unibail-Rodamco is a French-Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 company, headquartered in Paris, that focuses on investment in commercial property

Commercial property

The term commercial property refers to buildings or land intended to generate a profit, either from capital gain or rental income.-Definition:...

. It is the largest commercial real estate

Real estate

In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...

 company in Europe. The main assets managed by the company fall into three categories: shopping centres, convention centres and office properties, and have a total net worth of €24.5 billion. The company was formed by the June 2007 merger

Mergers and acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions refers to the aspect of corporate strategy, corporate finance and management dealing with the buying, selling, dividing and combining of different companies and similar entities that can help an enterprise grow rapidly in its sector or location of origin, or a new field or...

 of France's Unibail and Dutch-headquartered Rodamco Europe and is a constituent of both the CAC 40

CAC 40

The CAC 40 is a benchmark French stock market index. The index represents a capitalization-weighted measure of the 40 most significant values among the 100 highest market caps on the Paris Bourse...

 and AEX

AEX index

The AEX index, derived from Amsterdam Exchange index, is a stock market index composed of Dutch companies that trade on Euronext Amsterdam, formerly known as the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Started in 1983, the index is composed of a maximum of 25 of the most actively traded securities on the exchange...

 indices. The Unibail company had its head office in the 8th arrondissement of Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.

Unibail

Unibail was founded as a finance leasing unit in 1968 by the company then known as Worms & Cie

Worms & Cie

Worms & Cie is a French pulp and paper company, the 17th largest in the world in ....

 and listed on the Paris Bourse

Paris Bourse

The Paris Bourse is the historical Paris stock exchange, known as Euronext Paris from 2000 onwards.-History and functioning:...

 four years later. In 1991 it was decided to focus the company on the property investment sector, and to phase out involvement in lease financing. Unibail proceeded to build up a portfolio of property including almost 30 shopping centres across France, such as the Forum des Halles and the arcade within CNIT

Center of New Industries and Technologies

The Center of New Industries and Technologies , located in Puteaux, France, is one of the first buildings built in La Défense in Paris, France...

, as well as substantial office property in Paris and La Défense

La Défense

La Défense is a major business district of the Paris aire urbaine. With a population of 20,000, it is centered in an orbital motorway straddling the Hauts-de-Seine département municipalities of Nanterre, Courbevoie and Puteaux...

, including the Tour Ariane

Tour Ariane

Tour Ariane is an office skyscraper located in La Défense, the high-rise business district situated west of Paris, France....

, and the Paris Expo group of convention centres in and around the French capital.

Rodamco Europe

Rodamco Europe was formed in 1999 when Rodamco, a property investment fund set up by the Dutch asset management group Robeco

Robeco

Robeco is a Dutch asset management firm founded in 1929 as the Rotterdamsch Beleggings Consortium . By year end 2009, the company had over € 130 billion of assets under management. It was acquired in 2001 by the Rabobank Groep.Robeco offers assets management services to both institutional and...

 in 1979, was broken up into various independent listed companies covering different parts of the world. Rodamco Europe subsequently amassed a portfolio primarily consisting of shopping centres and other retail spaces across 14 European countries, along with some office property in France and the Netherlands, acquiring smaller European rivals in the process.

Merger

On April 10, 2007, Rodamco Europe announced an agreement to conduct a merger of equals with Unibail to create the largest publicly-traded property company in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. The merger was confirmed on 21 June 2007 after Unibail announced the acquisition of 80% of Rodamco's shares, making its offer for the remainder unconditional. The merged entity took effect as a société anonyme

S.A. (corporation)

S.A. designates a particular type of corporation in various countries, mostly those employing the civil law. It originated in Spain during the 16th century. Depending on language, the abbreviation stands for various phrases meaning anonymous society, anonymous company, anonymous partnership, or...

under the new name Unibail-Rodamco on 2007-06-25.