Developer Atrium European Real Estate is seeking acquisitions in Poland and Czech Republic, a spokesman for the retail developer confirmed. 'The company plans to use its funds to buy good quality income-producing assets. These two countries are particularly attractive, but we will look elsewhere if the assets are good.'
Developer Atrium European Real Estate is seeking acquisitions in Poland and Czech Republic, a spokesman for the retail developer confirmed. 'The company plans to use its funds to buy good quality income-producing assets. These two countries are particularly attractive, but we will look elsewhere if the assets are good.'
The focus on acquisitions follows moves to reduce the company's debt from EUR 1.5 bn at end 2008 to just over EUR 1 bn at end September. In the past year, Atrium has significantly scaled back its development pipeline from EUR 5 bn to EUR 320 mln, CEO Rachel Lavine said in an interview with Dutch daily Het Financieele Dagblad. The company's LTV currently stands at just 12%.
After booking writedowns of EUR 237 mln in the first half of the year, standing investments were revalued downwards by EUR 36 million to EUR 1.46 bn in the three months to 30 September 2009. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the company does not expect to make many more writedowns in the period ahead.
