Apollo Real Estate Advisers is in advanced talks to buy a €285m (£197m). hypermarket and major development site in Istanbul in its first Turkish deal.

The US investor is undertaking due diligence to buy French retailer Carrefour’s 645,840 sq ft Merter hypermarket near the capital city’s Ataturk airport at a yield of around 6%.

Merter, which opened in June, had previously been under offer to German closed-ended fund manager HFS for €290m (£200m) but the deal did not complete.

It is through that Apollo was attracted to the development potential at Merter which is located on one of Istanbul’s busiest roads. Carrefour occupies 123,500 sq ft of space at the hypermarket which also includes 200 shops.

There is further development potential.

End value
The end value of the scheme is estimated to be around €700m (£485m).

Apollo has been investing globally since 1995 and is an active investor in western and central and eastern Europe.

It is also investing in India in a joint venture with Indian private equity group Sun Group.

Carrefour decided to sell the shopping centre, which was the largest investment outside France for Carrefour, last year.

It has invested more than $1bn (£490m) since it entered Turkey in 1996.