CEE shopping centre specialist Atrium European Real Estate has announced the sale of 18 assets in Hungary and one in the Czech Republic for a combined price of €70 mln, representing an 8% premium to the book value as at 30 September 2017.
The sale covers almost all of Atrium's assets in Hungary and the company said that it intends to dispose of the remaining properties in due course to focus on dominant centres in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Atrium said that the disposals form part of its 'ongoing strategy to improve its portfolio through the selective rotation of capital towards high quality, well-established shopping centres which dominate their catchment areas'.
The assets have been sold in a number of separate transactions including Atrium’s stake in a shopping centre in Brno, Czech Republic.
Also see, BRIEFING Hungary set for record investment year
'These latest disposals mark our exit from Hungary, with the exception of a few residual assets, and, together with the sale in the Czech Republic, demonstrate our continued progress in improving the quality of our portfolio,' commented Group CEO Liad Barzilai. 'All of these transactions are in line with our strategy of focussing our portfolio on large, high quality dominant retail centres in major cities and urban locations in our core markets of Poland and the Czech Republic, where we see greater opportunities to create value.'
Atrium is an owner and manager of food, fashion and entertainment-anchored shopping centres with a presence in six CEE countries. Its €2.6 bn portfolio, which comprises 60 properties with over 1.1 million m2 of GLA, is 84%-focused on core CEE territories.
Following the disposals it holds 4 assets in Hungary, 21 in Poland, seven in Russia, five in the Czech Republic, three in Slovakia and one in Romania. Across the portfolio, Atrium's shopping centres have an average total occupancy of 95.9% as well as 175 million visitors.
