Salans seals three cross-border deals in Czech Republic

International law firm Salans has helped close three recent real estate transactions in the Czech Republic on behalf of institutional-grade clients.

The largest involved Salans advising Orco Property Group on the sale of the Radio Free Europe/Hagibor office building in Prague to a subsidiary of the American business L88 for $94 mln (EUR 75 mln).

Salans advised Bluehouse Capital, a private equity real estate investment fund active in the property markets of south-eastern Europe, on its first ever investment in Central Europe with acquisitions both in the Czech Republic and in Hungary.

In the Czech Republic, Bluehouse acquired two shopping centers in Hradec Králové and Znojmo with anchor tenants Interspar and Baumax from Carpathian Properties. Salans also advised on the refinancing by Deutsche Pfandbriefbank. As part of the same transaction, Bluehouse acquired two shopping centres in Hungary.

1Evan Lazar, co-chairman of Salans' Global Real Estate Group commented: 'While transaction levels have not recovered to the full 2007 levels, the increase in market activity levels that started about a year ago has not fallen off. We continue to serve our cross-border investment clients on numerous transactions in our core markets.'