Cromwell has completed the acquisition of all third party investor interests in the Cromwell Polish Retail Fund (CPRF). CPRF contains seven catchment-dominating shopping centres with a Gross Asset Value of approximately €600 million. The centres have an occupancy rate of 96.3% and a weighted average lease term (WALT) of 5.1 years.
Cromwell’s Polish team has been managing and developing the assets for over a decade. In August 2019, Cromwell opened the newest section of Janki Shopping Centre in Warsaw, following the completion of a major €65 million refurbishment which added gross lettable area of 21,000 square metres.
Commenting on the completion of the acquisition, Mark McLaughlin, Managing Director Europe, at Cromwell Property Group, said: “This move represents another important step in implementing our ‘Invest to Manage’ strategy, whereby Cromwell invests capital to acquire or improve assets and then creates new long-term funds with its network of capital partners. We would typically look to hold a co-investment stake in each fund, manage the assets and recycle the capital into new initiatives.”
Cromwell Chief Executive Officer, Paul Weightman, commented, “Poland is Europe’s success story and is a market we know well and are very positive about. It has been Europe’s fastest-growing economy over the past five years, with Gross Domestic Product growth of 4.5% in the 12 months to 30 June 2019. It also has one of the highest expected growths in disposable income, consumer spending and retail sales globally.”
“We will roll over the acquired interests into a new fund which will be offered to capital partners,” Mr Weightman concluded.
In Poland, Cromwell has 34 real estate professionals on the ground, managing 21 assets with more than 660 tenant customers and over 758,000 sqm of space.
