POLAND - GE Capital Real Estate has confirmed the first closing of its retail fund in Poland, securing €240m in equity from institutional investors including CBRE Investors and The Townsend Group.

The fund is seeded with a portfolio of nine high-quality shopping centres - located in seven major Polish cities including Warsaw, Krakow and Wroclaw and featuring hypermarkets and shopping galleries valued at €550m. 

With approximately 300,000 square meters of retail space, plans include increasing the size of the fund through selective acquisitions of additional retail properties and redevelopment of some of the existing shopping centres.
 
Jonathan Kern, president at GE Capital Real Estate Global Investment Management, said: "In the current economic environment, raising capital from leading third-party investors and securing financing from banks to successfully close another vehicle in Europe - the first in Poland - is a significant achievement."
 
Thierry Leleu, general manager for the EMEA region, added: "Together with our investors, the partnership with Eurohypo and ING Real Estate Finance for the leveraged acquisition of this stabilised retail portfolio in Poland emphasises our and our lenders' belief in the fundamentals of the Polish market."

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