Czech investment group Star Capital Finance (SCF) this week bought a portfolio of six Polish shopping centres from global investment group Cromwell Property Group. The value of the transaction is over CZK 7 billion. This is one of the largest real estate transactions in Central Europe in the last few years. With this move, SCF enters a third country and strengthens its position in the Central European retail market, where it already owns and operates shopping centers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
"We have bought a really high-quality portfolio of shopping centres, which also have the opportunity for further development. They are located all over Poland, have almost full occupancy and long-term lease agreements with solvent tenants, which guarantee reliable income," says Josef Malíř, CEO and owner of SCF. "We would like to thank all our partners who helped us to make one of the largest real estate transactions of its kind a reality."
"We have managed to improve performance and meet the current sustainability requirements of each of the shopping centres. The sale of the entire portfolio completes our business plan for these properties," says Andrew Creighton, Head of Investment Management for Europe at Cromwell Property Group. "We look forward to continuing to execute our ambitious investment strategies across Europe. We want to continue to focus on strategically located, high quality assets with excellent ESG performance."
Fraser Watson, Head of Investment at Savills, says: “Savills are delighted to have worked on another transaction with our esteemed client, Star Capital Finance. Since identifying this opportunity for them, we have worked hard to take it to Closing,“ and adds: „This is the largest transaction for some time in CEE, with 6 shopping centres in 6 different cities across Poland, totalling 219,000 sq m of leasable area and a closing price exceeding 285 mil eur. It is a testament to the underlying market fundamentals of the CEE region that deals of this size and complexity are possible. We would sincerely like to thank and recognise all the professionals involved in making this transaction happen.”
The acquired portfolio comprises a total of six shopping centres with a total lettable area of 219,000 sqm in established retail locations in Warsaw, Bydgoszcz, Łódź, Szczecin, Toruń and Wrocław. The anchor tenant of the centres is the food chain Auchan, while other key tenants of the portfolio include the Bi1 hypermarket, fashion brands LPP Group, Inditex Group, CCC Group, Rossmann drugstore, RTV Euro AGD electronics stores, Cinema City cinemas and a number of other tenants.
SCF Group's real estate advisors on the transaction were Savills, Sierra Balmain and Cushman & Wakefield, Dentons and BDO Legal provided legal advice, ASB Poland provided financial advisory services, GLEEDS provided technical advice and CBRE provided valuation services. Bank financing was provided by Aareal Bank and J&T Bank, advised by DLA Piper and Clifford Chance respectively.