The international developer UDI Group has opened a fund of qualified investors. It is intended for private and institutional investors. In addition to funds or banks, large private investors can also invest in the fund. The lowest possible deposit is CZK 1 million (€40,000). In the future, the fund will also include sub-funds aimed at financing individual large projects. In the first phase, the General sub-fund is opened, which will invest in the UDI Group as a whole, and the Conservative sub-fund invests in loans for individual projects. To investors, the fund will offer appreciation in a more conservative form with a guarantee of a minimum return of 6.5% per year, with a premium return of around 15% per year expected. The status and statutes of the fund were checked and approved by the CNB.
"The developer expects that the fund will help attract new types of investors, for example, institutional investors from banks and insurance companies, or investment funds. "They deal with the funds of third parties - their depositors - and must therefore follow strict rules," explained Pavel Šemík, Group treasury and Funding director at UDI. According to him, these types of investors therefore require a standard platform for their investments, which is under the independent management and supervision of the regulator, i.e. the Czech National Bank. The independent management of the fund is provided by the investment company Winstor, the custodian is ČSOB and the auditor is Ernst & Young.
"The group also refinanced its total credit load during 2023," explained Marcela Fialková, Strategy Director at UDI. At the end of June, it received a loan of almost PLN 100 million (about CZK 590 million / €23.9 million) from the Polish branch of mBank to finance the further construction of the Classic Ursus project in Warsaw, Poland. Here, the group has already completed and handed over 114 apartments to the new owners as part of the first stage of the project. Last spring, it began construction on the second phase, which includes 272 apartments and retail units on the ground floor of apartment buildings. Part of the second stage will also include the reconstruction of the historic entrance building to the original Ursus factory, which is a listed monument.
In the Czech Republic, the group is currently building a large logistics complex on the D5 highway near Pilsen. Here, the construction is being financed with a newly increased loan with a total value of €48 million. A total of three halls with an area of 130,000 sqm will be built in the area. The first of them, which will offer 50,000 sqm, is already completed in shell & core condition. At the same time, the group has a third smaller hall under construction, which will offer 30,000 sqm. Here it has a finished base building construction and will wait for a potential tenant with the next construction.
The acquisition and construction are financed by the UDI Group mainly from its resources. The group combines these with the capital provided by investors for evaluation and additionally with loans. Bank resources are mainly used to finance the actual construction of projects. The group can thus free up its funds tied up in land and buildings for interesting new acquisitions. It is currently considering the possibility of expanding to new markets in the USA or Germany.
