Morgan Stanley's acquisition of the largest shopping centre in St Petersburg for EUR 800 mln highlights investor appetite for core real estate assets in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), according to research by PropertyEU.
Morgan Stanley's acquisition of the largest shopping centre in St Petersburg for EUR 800 mln highlights investor appetite for core real estate assets in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), according to research by PropertyEU.
On its own, the Morgan Stanley purchase of the 191,000 m2 Galleria centre pushed the combined CEE and Russia volume to EUR 1.5 bn during December 2011 and end-January 2012.
While the volumes in the rest of CEE were smaller, PropertyEU Research recorded two EUR 100 mln-plus transactions in Hungary carried out by Heitman and one by a Middle Eastern investor in Poland.
US investor Heitman bought into office properties for its European HEPP IV fund from CEE developer Trigranit and UK-based investor Aviva. Qatar's sovereign wealth fund acquired a telecoms firm’s headquarters in Warsaw for EUR 130 mln.
In a recent report CBRE noted that the CEE transaction volume for 2011 came to more than EUR 11 bn - double that of the previous year as foreign investors widen their search for core assets.
Together, Russia and CEE accounted for 8% of the European volume of EUR 17.8 bn during the transition from 2011 to 2012.
PropertyEU Research tracks reported property deals of EUR 20 mln-plus on a daily basis. We have focussed on the flow of reported deals in December and January to finalise the transaction list for 2011 and to launch the 2012 list.
Our analysis of European deals during December and January, along with a final ranking of the top investors in 2011 is published in the March edition of PropertyEU Magazine. Click on the link below to subscribe:
