Susanne Steinböck, Group Head of Corporate Communications and Sustainability at CA Immo talked to Property Forum about the current state of affairs in the European office market, its attractiveness and energy-related challenges it has to face in the nearest future.

As part of its value-creating growth strategy with a focus on high-return properties, Immofinanz is acquiring 53 retail properties in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary from its majority shareholder CPI Property Group (CPIPG). The acquired portfolio has roughly 217,000 sqm of rentable space and is fully let with an occupancy rate of 99%. The purchase price totals €324.2 million. The purchase contract was signed today, together with the closing for 36 retail properties in the Czech Republic and Poland which have 108,000 sqm of rentable space. The purchase price of €191 million for those properties was financed from existing funds. The closing for the remaining 17 properties in Hungary and Slovakia is expected to take place by the end of this year.

Panattoni has sold a BTS facility developed in Stargard, Northwestern Poland that will be used by TEDi. The 87,000 sqm building was purchased for €53 million by a German investor, based in Dortmund.

Former Czech Prime Minister and billionaire Andrej Babiš, who is now facing trial for misuse of EU subsidies, is buying residential land in Slovenia. He has bought a plot of land in the centre of Ljubljana with his investment fund Hartenberg and the Slovak developer Corwin, where up to 400 flats can be built. The transaction, worth an estimated €25 million, would make Andrej Babiš one of the major players on the Slovenian real estate market, reported the investigative server Necenzurirano.si, quoted by the Czech daily E15.cz.

Prologis Europe has significantly scaled up its urban offering across the continent with more than a million square meters of core logistics space. On behalf of its open-ended vehicle PELF, the company has acquired 128 buildings and 6 developments in key urban gateway locations from last-mile operator Crossbay. The agreed price was €1.585 billion.

ECE has launched its inaugural European residential real estate fund and successfully raised equity commitments from renowned institutional investors, including two large highly reputable German insurance groups. With the capital raised in the first closing, the fund plans the purchase of investments with a volume of more than €350 million. Further capital commitments from institutional investors will be raised in the coming months. The strategic partner for the residential build-to-rent investments of institutional investors in the newly launched fund is the specialized Group company ECE Living. It is supported in concept and product design as well as in capital raising by the investment banking boutique Victoria Partners.

Markus Arnold, CEO of Arnold Investments talked to Property Forum about the key drivers of real estate investment in Europe and he also shared where the company is opening up new locations next.

French investment firm FREY has acquired Park Handlowy Matarnia in Gdańsk from Ingka Centres for €105 million. This is FREY’s first acquisition in Poland.

Penta Real Estate has bought 4.5 hectares of the land in Bratislava Nové Město district. The developer became the owner of this property in the bankruptcy proceeding in August this year. The price of the transaction was not published, the web portal TRENDreality.sk reports.

Hungary's B+N Referencia Zrt. has acquired Bulgarian facility management company i-Facility EOOD. With this new subsidiary, the company is now present in 7 countries in Central Europe.