ING RE, Babcock & Brown buy into major Roman project

A consortium of ING Real Estate Development Italy and Australian-based fund and asset manger Babcock & Brown has signed a preliminary agreement to acquire a majority stake from Rome-based property firm Scarpellini Group in the Romanina development project in the east of the city.

The development is worth between EUR 2 bn and EUR 3 bn, Menno Maas, CEO of ING Real Estate Development, told PropertyEU TV at MIPIM in Cannes.

ING RED and Babcock & Brown are carrying out due diligence on Romanina, one of largest regeneration projects undertaken in the Italian capital in recent years. 'If the due diligence currently underway works out the way it should, they will formalise their commitment,' said Sergio Scarpellini, the head of the Italian group. The agreement would give the joint venture a 80% stake in a project to redevelop 87 hectares near Rome's city centre. Scarpellini is retaining the remaining 20%.

Designed by famous Portuguese architect Manuel Salgado, the Romanina development consists of 560,000 m² of useable surface area, 40% of which is for residential use and the rest for services and commercial activities. Maas told PropertyEU that the company is very keen to work on this project as it is similar to its large regeneration projects in Amsterdam's Zuidas business district and Hamburg's Uberseequartier.

'We believe in this project as it shows by virtue of its ambition, size and mixed usage, enormous developments potential and a level of complexity comparable to other major interventions carried out in the past by our company, both in Europe and in the rest of t he world,' said Said Jaap Joldersma, head of ING RED Italy.

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO WATCH THE INTERVIEW WITH MENNO MAAS