South African real estate investment manager Rockcastle has expanded its shopping centre holdings in Poland in two separate deals valued at a total €522 mln.
In a financial filing in August, the Mauritius and Johannesburg-listed investor confirmed it has signed preliminary agreements in June to acquire Bonarka City Centre in the city of Kraków for €361 mln.
Rockcastle said that the investment volume included the assumption of €191 mln of financing on the asset and the transaction reflected an acquisition yield of 5.4%.
The 92,400 m2 shopping centre was developed by Hungarian developer Trigranit and opened in 2009. French supermarket retailer Auchan separately owns the 20,600 m2 it occupies. The vendor is named as Dutch-registered company Trios Dutch Holdings, but the ultimate owner is a European fund managed by US-based private equity company TPG. The fund, TPG RE II European Holdings, acquired Trigranit and most of its standing assets, including Bonarka, a year ago.
Bonarka City Centre and its 270 retail units attracted a footfall of 14.5 million in 2015.
Rockcastle said it had also signed a separate agreement with Aviva Investors to acquire two Focus Malls, one in Zielona Góra and one in Piotrków Trybunalski, for €161 mln.
Rockcastle entered Poland in March 2015 when it acquired the 18,000 m2 Solaris Centre (Galeria Handlowa) in Opole for €52 mln. Five months later the investment manager purchased Karolinka Shopping Centre in Opole and Pogoria Shopping Centre in Dabrowa Gornicza from Blackrock for almost €221 mln. In December 2015 Rockcastle acquired Platan shopping centre in the Silesian city of Zabrze in southern Poland from Germany's Triuva for just under €52 mln.
And, last month, Rockcastle expanded into the neighbouring Czech Republic by purchasing Forum Liberec, a regional shopping centre in North Bohemia, from British retailer Tesco for around €80 mln.
