With the sale of its 51% holding in the Aerozone logistics park to M7 CEREF I in Budapest, CA Immo has completed the strategic withdrawal from the logistics segment that began in 2012. Over the past few years, almost 500,000 sqm of logistical space in total has been sold in Poland, Romania, Hungary and Germany.
CA Immo held a 51% stake in the recently sold Aerozone logistics park in Budapest, which spans approximately 65,000 sqm, through a joint venture with Union Investment Real Estate. The buyer of the logistical property was M7 CEREF I, an M7 managed fund. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price, which is understood to be in the mid-double-digit millions; closing has been confirmed. Law firm CHSH advised the seller in the sale of the Aerozone logistics park.
Photo: MTI / H. Szabó Sándor
According to Frank Nickel, CEO of CA Immo, “We have sold our logistics portfolio to underpin profitable growth in our core business of offices. At the same time we are reducing minority holdings with a view to raising the efficiency of our portfolio management. This largely concludes our programme of non-core sales, which has been in progress since 2012. Alongside logistics, the programme covers the residential segment, smaller office buildings and properties outside of our core cities with a total market value of approximately €1 bn.”
CA Immo is investing the revenue from non-strategic sales in expansion, and particularly the construction of new, modern office properties in Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt.
With the acquisition of 49% minority holdings in one office building in Prague and another in Budapest (finalised in January 2016), the Aerozone logistics park in Budapest became the last remaining property in the C1 portfolio held with joint venture partner Union. The joint venture launched in 2005 was disbanded with the closing of this transaction.
The buyer of the Aerozone logistics park, M7 Real Estate entered the Hungarian market at the end of last year when its CEREF I fund acquired a real estate portfolio from Recovery Zrt., the asset management company for CIB Bank in Hungary. The portfolio consists of two retail centres, the Atom Center in Paks and Csillagvár in Budapest, and the Acélforma industrial hall in Dunaharaszti.
Document State Enterprise, based in Kiev, has opened a branch in Poland. The administrative unit, directly cooperating with the Ukrainian government, began its operations in a 600 sq m office in Blue Office in Warsaw.
Medicover will open its seventh Kraków medical centre in the Brain Park office complex. The centre will occupy more than 1,500 sqm of space at its new address in an investment being developed by Echo Investment.
PM Group, the manufacturer and distributor of technical products and accessories for heat-insulating carpentry, has leased 2,200 sqm for a new distribution centre in ELI Park 3. The project part of the ELI Park Bucharest North West hub is developed by Element Industrial.
New appointments
Karol Milczarski has joined the ranks of Colliers Poland experts, taking up the position of Senior Associate in the Commercial Space Department. His main task is to comprehensively support clients in the process of acquiring attractive street locations not only on high streets, but also within densely populated residential districts.
Danubius Hotels has appointed Andrea Róna as Group Director of Development. She has decades of experience in hotel management and development as well as asset management. The expert will be responsible for the further expansion and development of the hotel chain.
Cushman & Wakefield promotes Petr Markvart, Head of Landlord Representation Services in the Office Agency team, to Partner.
The fears of a recession are likely to cool down the red-hot real estate market in CEE countries, Erste specialists expect. According to them, this will be influenced mainly by surging inflation, the cost of credit and cooling down of the borrowing, and shrinking of the disposable household income which will also worsen the borrowing appetite in the coming periods. There is a change in the respondent’s behaviour too. Whereas respondents from Poland, Hungary and Croatia are open to buying or building a house, Czechs, Slovaks and Slovenians are less inclined to do so, say Erste experts in their recent special report.
Property developer Prime Kapital has delivered four out of five apartment buildings in its first residential project in Bucharest. The company has invested €47.8 million in the project that will feature 458 apartments.
Panattoni is launching its latest project in Western Poland, close to the border with Germany. The developer has just purchased a plot in Żary, not far from the E36 route connecting Berlin with Lubuskie province. Panattoni Park Żary will comprise 15,000 sqm, of which 8,000 sqm is to be built as a BTS project. This has already been leased by an international producer of polyurethane foam for (among others) the furniture industry. The company will begin operations in its new premises in the second quarter of 2023. The project is being built to qualify for BREEAM environmental certification at the ‘Excellent’ level.
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