Central and Eastern European property investment company, New Europe Property Investments, has bought a Romanian retail park for €63m (£58m).
The AIM-listed company is buying the shares in the holding company of the 1.5m sq ft European Retail Park in Braila from BelRom, a leading retail developer in Romania.
The retail park has already opened stores for two of its three main anchor tenants: Carrefour Hypermarket and Bricostore DIY.
There is also a 70,000 sq ft showroom and store for a Romanian furniture retailer, Staer, which is in the process of completion, as well as a multiple-screen cinema development that is expected to be completed by mid-2010.
The purchase will be settled in a combination of cash – partly funded with a new debt facility – and the issue of ordinary shares in NEPI.
NEPI has agreed a €113m acquisition debt funding facility from KBC Bank – of which €40m will be used to pay down existing debt on ERP Braila.
The facility is repayable at the end of 2014, with capital amortisation starting in 2011.
As a result, the balance of the consideration payable for the shares is approximately €23m, comprising a mixture of cash payable from the company’s own resources and the issue of vendor shares at a price of €2.026 per share.
The precise cash and share mixture is at the discretion of the company and will be confirmed in due course, but of the vendor shares, 3,587,148 will be subject to a lock-in agreement and will be held in escrow.
