A South African joint venture has acquired Futureal Group's Polish retail asset, Nova Park, for €88.5 mln.
One of the members of the joint venture behind the acquisition is MAS Real Estate Inc, an Isle of Man-based European investment company that is listed on Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and on the Euro MTF market in Luxembourg. The second is Prime Kapital, a CEE real estate investor established earlier this year by two founders of New European Property Investments (NEPI), which is listed on JSE and in London and Bucharest.
Nova Park is the biggest regional shopping centre in the Lubuskie administrative region of western Poland. Located in the city of Gorzów Wielkopolski, the centre was opened on 18 April 2012 as a joint investment of Caelum Development and Futureal Group. Nova Park features 140 stores across a gross leasable area of 32,580 m2.
'In 2011, within two months, Futureal Group managed to implement a complex, structured investment and raise €50 mln of development finance in the middle of the Euro crisis. During the successful partnership with our Irish partner, Caelum, we have together developed an asset that went on to become the dominant shopping centre in the region,' said Gábor Futó, founder of Futureal Group.
Futureal Group gained 100% ownership of the mall in 2014. According to the developer, Nova Park has registered a turnover growth of over 10% per annum since 2012 and has received a building permit for a 6800 m2 gross leasable expansion. The project also won the CIG Best Retail Development of the Year award in 2012.
The joint venture between MAS and Prime Kapital will own Nova Park, marking its first acquistion in Poland. Prime Kapital sourced the deal and will also manage the shopping centre.
Martin Slabbert and Victor Semionov, founders and former executives at CEE property investor NEPI, created Prime Kapital as a private company in March this year. The company started with an initial capital of €260 mln and aims to build a €500 mln portfolio over the next few years.
MAS Real Estate was founded and listed in 2009 to acquire European real estate. The company initially focused on the Western Europe. The company has since broadened its investment mandate to include the whole of the European Economic Area.
'This successful acquisition is an important step in achieving our strategy to deliver sustainable growing income distributions through exposure to dominant assets in Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe,' said MAS CEO Lukas Nakos. 'This investment, as part of our joint venture with Prime Kapital, is a good example of the synergy created by the two businesses which are being leveraged to generate growing income through active asset management and redevelopment.'
'In addition to the immediate income being generated by the property, the acquisition provides significant opportunities to enhance the income stream and further strengthen the mall’s dominance through active asset management and a substantial extension, aligning with the group’s strategy of delivering growing income distribution,' said Victor Prime Kapital's Semionov added.
Tenants currently include Bershka, C&A, CCC, Cropp Town, Deichman, Douglas, Empik, H&M, Intersport, KFC, Media Expert, Mohito, New Yorker, Piotr i Pavel, Pull&Bear, Pure Fitness, Reserved, Rossmann, Sephora, Sinsay, Smyk, Stradivarius and Super-Pharm.
'As one of the largest developers in Central and Eastern Europe, Futureal stays committed towards the Polish market. We are continuously looking for investment opportunities in the commercial real estate sector as an independent player or part of a joint-venture. We see enormous potential in the country,' concluded Tibor Tatár, CEO of Futureal.
Jones Lang LaSalle advised Futureal and acted exclusively as sales agent.
