We are in this together and we will get through this together, writes the CEO of Erste Group Bank about the Covid-19 pandemic in an article published on Linkedin.

Erste Bank Group anticipates an economic slowdown for 2020 in most CEE countries due to the coronavirus situation. The bank’s report mentions a negative scenario as well, which would result in a massive recession in the region.

Erste Group Bank AG has appointed Patrick Zehetmayr to head the banking group’s commercial real estate business, which encompasses non-residential activities at both the stock-listed company’s holding level and at Erste Bank Oesterreich, the group’s Austrian subsidiary. In his new role, Zehetmayr is responsible for the group’s commercial real estate coverage and financing activities, as well as for the real estate leasing business of Erste Group Immorent (EGI), whose supervisory board he chairs.

The acquisition of the second phase of Advance Tower located on the Váci road office corridor has been closed. With the current purchase, the entire office complex with a total GLA of over 20,000 sqm developed by Futureal Group has joined Erste Real Estate Fund’s portfolio. This is the first transaction in the Hungarian market which includes a WELL pre-qualified office building.

HB Reavis has received a new syndicated loan from Erste Group and Raiffeisen Bank International Group (RBI Group) for the construction and development of Agora Budapest. The recently signed facility amount of €140 million makes it one of the largest in the Hungarian real estate sector. The financing club is led by Erste Group as book-runner and facility agent. Erste Group and RBI Group will finance the Agora Budapest project with equal parts.

Futureal Group has sold its Advance Tower located on the Váci road office corridor to Erste Real Estate Fund. This is the first transaction in the Hungarian market, which includes a WELL pre-qualified office building having a beneficial impact on employees’ health and comfort. The real estate fund has acquired the first phase of the complex developed by the group, while the second phase could join its portfolio under a forward deal.

Erste Group has laid the cornerstone of the second phase of the Sirius Offices business complex in Belgrade which will include the construction of 12,500 square metres of space over eight floors and a parking lot for 200 vehicles. Erste plans to invest €25 million in the second phase of the project. The building will be completed by the middle of 2020.

M7 Real Estate has refinanced a €4.8 million debt facility secured against the Mani Business Centre in Zagreb, Croatia with Erste Bank Zagreb following the completion of M7’s successful asset management strategy for the property.

Futureal Group signed a loan agreement for €150 million (roughly HUF 48 billion) with a consortium led by UniCredit acting as Bookrunner and Facility Agent. UniCredit and Erste Group will finance Buda's biggest shopping centre with equal parts, marking one of the largest shopping centre-related financings in Hungary over the past ten years. The construction of Etele Plaza, with a gross area of 137,000 square meters, is already underway.

Skanska has sold Mill Park, a two-building office project in Budapest, to the real estate fund of Erste Alapkezelő Zrt., one of the subsidiaries of Erste Asset Management GmbH, for €100 million. This is the second acquisition from Skanska in Budapest that the purchaser has made following the Nordic Light transaction in 2016.