CA Immo buys back €428m of own debt at discount

Austrian listed property firm CA Immobilien Anlagen has acquired a financing portfolio with a nominal value of €428 mln from lender Österreichische Volksbanken.

The companies agreed to keep the transaction price confidential. However, CA Immo said the portfolio is being purchased at a discount.

Secured real estate loans of CA Immo Group companies in Eastern Europe make up around 50% of the nominal amount, with the remaining €215 mln consisting of unsecured financing at holding level.

'This transaction will significantly strengthen the structure of our balance sheet,' commented Florian Nowotny, Chief Financial Officer at CA Immo. 'It is particularly gratifying that as a result, we will very quickly be able to utilise funds generated from the successful property sales of recent weeks. As early as the first quarter of 2014, we will feel the benefit of a lasting reduction in payable interest.'

In the past few weeks, CA Immo disposed of the Lipowy office building in Warsaw as well as the Mercedes Benz headquarters in Berlin, raising some €200 mln in total.