Atrium European Real Estate Limited announced the sale of 18 assets in Hungary and one in the Czech Republic for a combined price of €70 million, representing an 8% premium to the book value as at 30 September 2017. The disposals form part of the company’s ongoing strategy to improve its portfolio through the selective rotation of capital towards high quality, well-established shopping centres which dominate their catchment areas.
The assets have been sold in a number of separate transactions including, the completion of the sale of Atrium’s stake in a shopping centre in Brno, Czech Republic, completing the portfolio rotation in the Czech Republic. Atrium has also sold 18 properties in Hungary, representing substantially all its Hungarian portfolio and the Group intends to dispose of the remaining assets in the country in due course.
Atrium’s Hungarian portfolio includes retail assets in several Hungarian cities. Most of the supermarkets are anchored by Penny Market or Spar. Three of Atrium’s assets, a shopping centre in Budapest (EuroCenter), a retail centre (Family Center) and a Praktiker store in the city of Szombathely were recently sold to Hungarian developer Wing.
Liad Barzilai, Group Chief Executive Officer, said: “These latest disposals mark our exit from Hungary, with the exception of a few residual assets, and, together with the sale in the Czech Republic, demonstrate our continued progress in improving the quality of our portfolio. All of these transactions are in line with our strategy of focussing our portfolio on large, high quality dominant retail centres in major cities and urban locations in our core markets of Poland and the Czech Republic, where we see greater opportunities to create value.”
