MGPA, the private equity real estate investment advisory company, announces that it has completed the acquisition of two new shopping centres in Poland and has taken an option over a third from DTC Finance BV. The three shopping centers have been developed and managed by Mayland Real Estate.
The acquisitions have been made on behalf of MGPA Europe Fund III (the "Fund"), part of the larger MGPA Global Fund III, which closed in June 2008 with commitments of US$5.2 billion to invest across Europe and Asia. The Fund itself raised US$1.3 billion (841.5 million) and has already made investments in the UK, France, Italy, Greece and Poland and currently remains largely uninvested.
The two shopping centers acquired initially, Karolinka and Pogoria, are located in the Silesia region near the German and Czech Republic borders. The acquisition price was 187 million or 1,765 per m². This is the largest real estate deal in Poland since 2007.
Karolinka is an out-of-town regional destination shopping centre of 70,000 m², with a primary catchment area of 455,000 people. Pogoria is a 36,000-m² two-level shopping centre in a prime location with a catchment area of 1 million people. Both centres are well let with occupancy above 98%. The weighted average lease length is approximately 6.5 years and 70% of the tenants are established international brands such as Real (Metro Group), Leroy Merlin, OBI, Decathlon, H&M, KappAhl, Reserved, Cubus and New Yorker. Mayland Real Estate will keep the property management of the new generation centers.
MGPA has also negotiated on behalf of the Fund a three month call option to acquire an additional single storey 22,000-m² urban shopping centre, in northern Poland, which has the potential for a further 22,000-m² extension creating a total of 44,000 m². The total investment for the three centers excluding the extension amounts to 236 million.MGPA has been active in Poland for over five years; its existing investments include Rondo 1, a prime office asset in central Warsaw, and Wilanow One, a residential complex in a prestigious zone of Warsaw.
Alex Jeffrey, MGPA's Chief Executive for Europe, commented "These are high quality, dominant, well-let shopping centres. We are acquiring them near the cyclical low in Poland and intend to manage them actively during their stabilisation phase by increasing the productivity and sustainable rents of the centers through active asset management initiatives. We have made substantial investments in Poland in the past five years which have performed well.
The country is clearly an outperformer both within the CEE regionand across Europe as a whole, and in our view continues to offer superior growth prospects."
Colliers International represented the Vendor and was the sole agent in the transaction.
Source: Citigate Dewe Rogerson
