New York-based investment firm WP Carey & Co said it has acquired a retail facility in the Polish city of Wroclaw for about EUR 9.5 mln. The complex will be leased back to German DIY group OBI.
New York-based investment firm WP Carey & Co said it has acquired a retail facility in the Polish city of Wroclaw for about EUR 9.5 mln. The complex will be leased back to German DIY group OBI.
The deal is the third sale-and-leaseback the WP Carey Group has arranged with the OBI Group over the last two years, providing approximately EUR 170 mln in financing to the retailer. OBI currently operates more than 500 stores in Central and Eastern Europe and is looking to expand further in this region.
'The sale-leaseback and build-to-suit transactions we've completed with WP Carey have played a significant role in supporting our growth initiatives over the past two years,' said Sergio Giroldi, CEO of OBI. 'Despite the vagaries of the capital markets, the sale-leaseback transactions with WP Carey have been a steady source of capital, allowing us to focus on our core business and evaluate our development strategy within the context of quantifiable financial parameters.'
WP Carey is an increasingly active sale-and-leaseback financier in Europe. In 2007, the company completed more than EUR 450 mln in transactions in Germany, Finland, France and Poland.
