Tristan fund closes on Polish retail portfolio

Tristan Capital Partners has completed the purchase of a Polish retail portfolio from Australian listed group Charter Hall.

Tristan paid €174 mln for the portfolio. The transaction, which was first announced in June this year, involves five retail projects in Poland totalling 66,300 m2: the Borek shopping centre in Wroclaw (developed in 1999), the Turzyn retail gallery in Szczecin (developed in 2001), the Dabrowka shopping centre in Katowice (developed in 1999), the Zakopianka retail park in Krakow (developed in 1998) and the Arena retail park in Gliwice (developed in 2006).

At the time, Daniel Harris, MD of investments at Tristan Capital, highlighted the relative strength of the Polish economy. 'We believe these are good retail assets that will be enhanced through further investment.'

The five centres are located in affluent and densely populated neighbourhoods in each of these large Polish cities and average occupancy level across the portfolio is 94%. All five centres are anchored by hypermarkets owned separately by Carrefour, although these are not part of the transaction.

'The sale of the Charter Hall portfolio to Tristan Capital Partners is a strong indication of Poland's continuing popularity as a key target market for international investors,' commented Mike Atwell, senior director and head of CEE Capital Markets at CBRE, which acted for the vendor.

He added: 'The geographical spread of these five assets in some of Poland's major cities confirms that there is still strong institutional investor demand on a regional basis. This transaction clearly shows that the core-plus/opportunistic market is still alive and performing well.'

pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank provided a loan to Tristan Capital Partners' European Property Investors Special Opportunities 3 for the acquisition of the portfolio.

The transaction is the second in Poland for Tristan-advised funds since November, when it closed the €210 mln acquisition of the Warsaw Financial Center in a joint venture with Allianz.

Charter Hall was advised on the sale by CBRE and international law firm Dentons.