Helaba, acting as facility and security agent, and pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank have jointly underwritten an investment facility to finance four office properties in Poland. Together, the two banks are providing Globalworth Poland Real Estate (GPRE) with a loan in an amount of €100 million with a duration of seven years. The transaction closed in June 2018. Helaba and pbb are acting as Joint Lead Arrangers providing equal portions of the funding.

From July onwards, entrepreneurs in Poland will decide whether to apply the split payment mechanism (SPM). As announced by the Polish Ministry of Finance, entities making split payments will be considered to be entrepreneurs of strong commercial integrity and business professionalism. Experts of Cresa Poland and tax specialists of Crido Taxand say whether it advisable to make use of the new regulations in their joint review “Commercial Real Estate Tax & Business Digest”.

Globalworth Real Estate Investment Limited in partnership with BT Capital Partners, a company of Banca Transilvania Financial Group, announced the second admission to trading on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) of the corporate bonds issued by the company, with a total value of €550 million.

pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank provided an investment facility of €74 million to companies owned by Newbridge for the acquisition of three shopping malls in Poland, namely Bielawy in Toruń, Guliwer in Łódź and Czyżyny in Kraków.

The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) and Postbank (Bulgaria) will jointly provide €58.3 million (€32 million and €26.3 million, respectively) to help finance the construction of a Marriott hotel in Sofia, the first hotel of the international chain in Bulgaria. The 12-year loan will be extended to I Tower Development JSC, a special-purpose company set-up in Bulgaria. BSTDB acted as arranger of the deal. The operation aims at meeting the growing demand for high-quality business and tourist accommodation and conference facilities in the Bulgarian capital.

The EBRD and ING Romania are joining forces to finance the logistics park CTPark, situated on the A1 Bucharest-Pitesti motorway and 2 km away from the Romanian capital. The financiers have arranged a package of €96 million, of which the EBRD is providing €43.8 million and ING €52.2 million.

The number of institutional-grade products has increased progressively and we are now at a point where Romania can be competitive compared to other CEE countries with regards to building quality as well as tenant profile. Robert Miklo, Director of Investment Services at Colliers International Romania shared his thoughts.

Futureal Group signed a credit agreement of €34.2 million with K&H Bank in order to finance the realization of the Advance Tower office building located in Budapest, Hungary. The first phase of the office complex, receiving the international WELL Building Platinum Precertification, is expected to be handed over in the second quarter of 2018.

In 2017, real estate transactions hit a record-breaking volume of € 5 billion, up by nearly 10% on the previous year. Bank financing for properties remained unchanged, averaging approximately 60% of each property’s value. Cushman & Wakefield has published its opinion on the commercial property lending market in Poland, written by Mira Kantor-Pikus, Partner, Equity, Debt & Structured Finance, Capital Markets at Cushman & Wakefield Poland.

pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank provided an investment facility of €41.4 million to companies owned by a professional private real estate investor and managed by development and investment company Amesbury s.r.o. The funds will be used to refinance the Zlicin and Chrastany business parks near Prague. Thereby pbb extended the maturity of its financing by another five years. The transaction closed in December 2017.