Gazit-Globe, Israel's largest real estate investment company, said it has bought a 13.9% stake in Atrium European Real Estate in an off-market deal worth €229 mln from a consortium managed by CPI CEE Management and controlled by US private equity Group Apollo.
Gazit-Globe, Israel's largest real estate investment company, said it has bought a 13.9% stake in Atrium European Real Estate in an off-market deal worth €229 mln from a consortium managed by CPI CEE Management and controlled by US private equity Group Apollo.
Gazit-Globe paid €4.4 per share for 52 million shares and raised its stake in Atrium to 54% on a diluted basis to become the sole controlling shareholder. Atrium's shares closed at €4.09 the day prior to the announcement.
The move means that Atrium's financial results will be consolidated into Gazit-Globe from the first quarter of 2015.
'Gazit-Globe's acquisition of the remaining Atrium shares held by CPI at an attractive price relative to NAV per share is the realisation of a rare opportunity to become the sole controlling shareholder of Atrium,' commented Roni Soffer, president of Gazit-Globe.
'This acquisition is in line with our global strategy to be the controlling shareholder of real estate companies with great management teams, strong balance sheets, and investment grade credit ratings that specialise in supermarket-anchored shopping centres operating in urban growth markets with high investment grade credit ratings,' he said.
Vienna- and Amsterdam-listed Atrium focuses on investing in and developing shopping centres in Central and Eastern Europe. As at 30 September 2014, the group owned 151 shopping centres and retail properties with a market value of €2.5 bn, spread across seven countries with a total gross lettable area of 1.3 million m2.
The company plans to further raise the quality of its portfolio in the coming years by disposing of non-core assets and boosting the number of large malls.
In a recent interview with PropertyEU, Atrium’s new CEO Josip Kardun and executive vice-chairman Rachel Lavine said the company had a three-year trajectory ahead during which it would focus on A markets. ‘We would like to buy one to two assets a year. It should be possible if we continue to dispose of our non-core assets,’ Kardun said.
Lavine, previously CEO before handing over the reins to Kardun, said Atrium would seek to boost the number of large shopping centres in its portfolio to around 40 from 33 now. At the same time, non-core assets will be sold. In recent months, Atrium has agreed a number of acquisitions including the 41,000 m2 Focus Mall in Bydgoszcz, Poland for €122 mln and the 20,900 m2 AFI Palace in Pardubice, Czech Republic for €83 mln.
