Hungarian investor and developer Wing has inked a deal to acquire a 56% stake in Polish development firm Echo Investment for around €268 mln.
Privately owned Wing, which focuses on commericial and residential assets located mostly in Budapest, will acquire an entity called Lisala, which owns 56% of Echo Investment's shares, from investment vehicle Echo Partners.
Echo Partners is owned by affiliates of Oaktree and PIMCO.
Echo Investment, which is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, is considered Poland's largest developer with some 160 projects under its belt. The firm said it had around 90 projects in the pipeline, across its seven focus cities of Warsaw, Kraków, Lódz, Wroclaw, Katowice, Gdansk and Poznan.
Noah Steinberg, founder and president of Wing, said that his firm had been 'looking for a strategic investment opportunity that offers long-term growth potential besides stable and successful operation' as part of international expansion plans.
'During the mapping of regional markets, the Polish real estate market proved to be the most attractive investment destination based on development opportunities and the characteristics of the investors' market,' Steinberg added.
'Wing and Echo will mutually strengthen each other on multiple levels and lead to further opportunities for development for both companies,' Steinberg noted. 'We will establish a market-leading regional player in CEE, and we look forward to generating exciting new opportunities in the future.'
‘During the last four years, we successfully turned the company from a long-term holder of completed assets to a pure developer, in line with a strategy of profitable growth,' said Nicklas Lindberg, CEO of Echo Investment.
Law firm Greenberg Traurig advised the Wing Group.
The transaction is subject to clearance by the Polish Office of Competition.
