Romanian real estate specialist Globalworth Real Estate Investments is moving into the Polish market through the acquisition of Griffin Premium RE (GPRE).
Globalworth, which has so far invested solely in Romania, is paying around €100m for a majority stake in the Dutch real estate entity GPRE, which owns Polish office and mixed-use properties.
Globalworth described GPRE as a “pure-play Polish real estate platform that primarily owns high-quality office and mixed-use assets located in Warsaw and across a number of other key cities, notably Wroclaw, Lodz, Krakow and Katowice”.
The portfolio of the Warsaw-listed entity comprises six office and three properties with mixed office and retail use.
Dimitris Raptis, Globalworth’s deputy chief executive and CIO, said: “As our largest investment to date and our first transaction outside of the Romanian market, this expansion into Poland, the largest market in Central and Eastern Europe, is a pivotal development in Globalworth’s strategy to establish itself as the region’s leading office investor.”
The company had prioritised expanding into Poland because of the market’s size, liquidity, strong fundamentals and depth of opportunities, he said.
GPRE’s assets have 171,000sqm of lettable space and an aggregate value of €508m. They are 97.6% occupied, with a weighted-average lease term of 4.5 years.
Tenants include Infosys, Hewlett-Packard, Capita, Phillips and Deutsche Bank.
The investment is being made via a public tender offer to all holders of shares in GPRE, at an offer price that implies an aggregate equity value for GPRE of PLN859m (€199m).
Globalworth already has a conditional agreement with two Dutch entities that are indirectly controlled by Oaktree Capital Management Group, and which together hold around 47.92% of GPRE’s issued share capital.
Under that pact, Oaktree will subscribe to the tender to the extent required for Globalworth to acquire at least 50.01% of its target.
