Edge Hill University
Richard Wilkinson - Erste Group Bank
According to Richard Wilkinson, head of commercial real estate at Erste, “The real estate investment market in CEE grew by 19% in 2015, while transaction volumes have particularly increased in our core markets Hungary, Romania and Slovakia and we expect this trend to continue throughout the year."
Listed Austrian property investor Immofinanz AG exited the logistics real estate sector last year (reported on in REFIRE in November) to concentrate on its office and retail investments and to renew its focus on its key markets, including reducing its exposure to Russia. It sold its more than 1 million sqm logistics portfolio to Logicor, the European logistics arm of giant private equity group Blackstone for €508m.
The logistics portfolio consisted of assets in Germany, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Slovakia and Russia.
The funding for the deal is now becoming more clear. Austria's Erste Group Bank is lending €91m on a five-year loan facility for the 12 logistics assets in central and eastern Europe - Hungary (five assets), Romania (4), Poland (2) and Slovakia (1) as well as land reserves. Two assets in Romania’s Bucharest and Ploiesti are still under construction and will be completed by Immofinanz, said Erste.
According to Richard Wilkinson, head of commercial real estate at Erste, “The real estate investment market in CEE grew by 19% in 2015, while transaction volumes have particularly increased in our core markets Hungary, Romania and Slovakia and we expect this trend to continue throughout the year.”
For the 27 German assets with 630,000 sqm of gross lettable area, the Frankfurt-based landesbank Helaba is providing a €250m long-term loan, while it acted as mandated lead manager on the overall transaction and provided full underwriting. The German assets are leased to 83 different tenants, with the bulk of the properties located in North Rhne-Westphalia.
