BIG Shopping Centers Ltd., the controlling shareholder (~95%) of BIG CEE, successfully raised NIS 205 million (approx. €55 million) by issuing secured bonds in the Israeli stock exchange by refinancing the following shopping centres: BIG Fashion Kragujevac, BIG Kruševac and BIG Fashion Outlet Inđija.
The bonds have a weighted average maturity of 6.6 years (October 2029), they are not linked to any index and bear an effective annual interest rate of 1.495%, with a loan-to-value ratio of 70%.
The bonds were sold mainly to leading institutional Israeli funds after the demand for bonds in the bidding process amounted to over NIS 1 billion (approx. €267 million); namely, the demand exceeded the amount BIG ultimately decided to raise by almost 5 times.
BIG Group intends to use the proceeds from this bond issue to advance further its expansion in Serbia and in the Balkan region.
“We are very proud of the confidence the Israeli market has demonstrated in our outstanding, Serbian assets as evidenced by excellent financing obtained by the Group,“ said Alon Bargiora, CFO of BIG CEE Serbia.
BIG CEE Group is among leading investors in retail real estate, having a portfolio of nine shopping centres in Serbia and four additional residential, office and logistics projects.
