MAS Real Estate, a commercial property investor, developer and operator listed in both Johannesburg and Luxembourg, announced the acquisition of two shopping malls in Bulgaria, for €62 million. The malls have been acquired from Globe Trade Centre and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The Galleria Burgas Mall and the Galleria Stara Zagora Mall and are located in the Bulgarian cities of Burgas and Stara Zagora, respectively.
“This transaction is in line with our plans to expand into markets with growing economies across Central and Eastern Europe by acquiring accretive income-generating assets with real upside potential through our joint venture with Prime Kapital. The transaction increases our income-generating property portfolio by 15,3% from €406.4 million to €468.4 million,” says Lukas Nakos, CEO of MAS.
Galleria Burgas is the dominant shopping centre in Burgas, the 4th largest Bulgarian city with a population of 200,000. The mall benefits from a total catchment area of approximately 480,000 people within 60 minutes’ drive, as well as a significant number of tourists during the summer holiday season, the city being in the vicinity of the most popular Black Sea resorts on the Bulgarian coast.
“Galleria Burgas has a broad tenant mix consisting of 115 tenants including primarily international fashion and entertainment brands (including Bershka, CCC, Cinema City, Deichmann, H&M, Humanic, Ikea, Intersport, LC Waikiki, Lee Cooper, Lidl, Massimo Dutti, Oysho, Terranova and Zara). Due to strong performance and tenant demand, a significant centre extension is being considered with the intention to enhance the earnings from this asset,” commented Nakos.
Galleria Stara Zagora is the dominant shopping centre in Stara Zagora, the 6th largest Bulgarian city. The mall benefits from a total catchment of approximately 400,000 people within 45 minutes’ drive. The tenant mix is focused primarily on fashion and entertainment and consists of 71 tenants (which includes brands such as Bershka, Cinema City, CCC, Deichmann, DM, H&M, Intersport, Kenvelo, LC Waikiki, New Yorker, Nike, Pull&Bear and Stradivarius).
“Galleria Stara Zagora is in need of refurbishment and offers value enhancing opportunities through operational streamlining and commercial layout improvement. With our asset management expertise we have formulated an approach to improve the operational capacity of the mall with the intention to enhance the net income earned from the asset,” says Nakos.
MAS Real Estate Inc. is a commercial property investor, developer and operator that is listed on the main board of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the Euro-MTF market of the Bourse de Luxembourg. MAS has a strategic alliance with Prime Kapital, led by Martin Slabbert and Victor Semionov, former directors of JSE-listed New Europe Property Investments (NEPI).
MAS' effective economic interest in the acquisition is the equivalent of an 80% direct participation in the performance of the malls and a 20% participation at the weighted average cost of funding achieved by the acquisition in line with the previously announced co-investment agreement with Prime Kapital.
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New appointments
Piotr Herian has taken up the position of ISS CFO for Poland and the Baltics. ISS is a leading company in the creation of friendly workplaces and comprehensive facilities management.
Paulina Strutyńska has been promoted to the position of Leasing & Asset Director at Skanska’s commercial development business unit. She is now responsible for leasing processes in the Warsaw market as well as Key Customer Management. Agnieszka Krawczyk-Rogowska is responsible for project commercialization and client liaison in Gdańsk, Kraków, and Bucharest, while Marek Stasieńko is responsible for the Wrocław, Poznań, and Łódź markets.
The Supervisory Board of Globe Trade Centre S.A. has appointed Balázs Gosztonyi as a member of the Management Board of GTC S.A. Balázs Gosztonyi has held the position of Chief Financial Officer at GTC Hungary since January 2024. He joined GTC Group in September 2023 as Group Controlling Director.
In 2024, the total investment volume in Poland amounted to €364 million, marking the weakest result for the first quarter in recent years. Interestingly, 25% of the invested capital comes from Polish investors. The warehouse sector remains the leader, accounting for 38% of the total investment volume. Unchanged, the vast majority of office transactions took place in Warsaw, while commercial investments were dominated by retail parks. Additionally, the market also saw two transactions in the residential sector in Warsaw, and two hotels were sold in seaside tourist cities, says Paulina Brzeszkiewicz-Kuczyńska, Research and Data Manager at Avison Young.
The 4-day workweek is becoming an increasingly hot topic. Although in Poland it still appears to be a thing of the future, recent years have shown how quickly labour market trends are changing. AI is also broadly expected to have a significant effect on the workplace. BNP Paribas Real Estate experts are wondering, how will all of this impact the commercial real estate market.
The vacancy rate at the end of Q1 2024 reached 8.9% in Greater Budapest, representing a 0.3 percentage points increase quarter-on-quarter, while an increase of 3 percentage points was registered year-on-year, the Budapest Research Forum reports.
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