Immofinanz is driving the expansion of its Stop Shop retail park brand and has now purchased eight retail parks in Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia. The purchase price totals approximately €90.5 million. The newly acquired properties are fully rented and generate an annual rental income of roughly €7.2 million, which represents a gross return of 8.0%. These transactions increase Immofinanz’s Stop Shop portfolio to 80 locations in nine countries with over 567,000 sqm of rentable space and a carrying amount of approx. €800 million. Further acquisitions are currently under evaluation, and two Stop Shops in Poland and Serbia are now in the active development phase.
“These acquisitions strengthen our position as the leading European retail park operator and, with regard to Croatia, mark our entry into a new EU retail market which is very attractive for our international tenants. Good locations, excellent track records, favourable local competitive situations and a classical, sound tenant mix are the distinctive features of these attractive investment opportunities. In addition, the returns that can be realised in these markets speak for themselves“, explained Dietmar Reindl, COO of Immofinanz, on the transaction. “Our goal is to increase the number of Stop Shops to over 100 – through further acquisitions as well as our own development projects.“
The closing for the purchase of most of the locations is expected to take place by the end of 2018. The purchase price will be financed internally from liquid funds.
The real estate package in Slovenia includes three retail parks in Maribor, Krsko and Ptuj with roughly 22,000 sqm of rentable space. Immofinanz’s Slovenian retail park portfolio will now grow to nine locations with 52,300 sqm of rentable space. The two retail parks purchased in Croatia have nearly 13,500 sqm of rentable space in total and are located in Osijek and Valpovo. The seller of the locations in Slovenia and Croatia is the MID Group.
The acquisitions in Serbia involve retail parks with roughly 32,500 sqm of rentable space in Subotica, Borca and Smederevo. The Stop Shop brand in this country will now have nine locations with 83,600 sqm of rentable space. The seller is the Serbian MPC Group.
The acquired properties have an attractive tenant mix which also includes anchor tenants with an established presence in other Stop Shops – for example, Deichmann, H&M, C&A, Takko, KiK and JYSK. After the transactions close, the properties will be rebranded in line with the Stop Shop concept.
CBRE advised MID Group
CBRE advised MID on the sale of five retail parks in Slovenia and Croatia, for a total consideration of just under €50 million. MID Group is Austrian-based and has real estate development activities across Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Slovakia and Hungary. They instructed CBRE in mid-2018 to dispose of the retail assets in Croatia and Slovenia.
Uros Grujic from CBRE who handled the sale on behalf of MID commented “This deal is further proof of the increase in investor interest in the region, and we are proud to have advised MID on such a ground-breaking cross-border deal. Both Slovenia and Croatia are very important markets for CBRE, with both countries being perceived most positively of all the South Eastern European markets we cover. Slovenia, in particular, has witnessed a lot of investment activity over the past 12 months, whereas in Ljubljana alone this year we have sold four prime office buildings. We expect more deals in both markets to close in Q4 of 2018 and Q1 of 2019.”
