The group acquired a total leasable area of approximately 265,000 sqm from two funds managed by CBRE Global Investors, and closed the deal — which it says is historic — yesterday.

The recently purchased portfolio consists of major shopping centers Olympia Plzeň and Nisa Liberec in Czech Republic, Ogrody in Poland, Polus and Campona in Hungary and Felicia in Romania; multifunctional complexes Zlatý Anděl in Prague and Andrássy Complex in Budapest; and two Interspar stores in Hungary.

The bank financing has been arranged through several loans coming to a total of EUR 440 million, with CPI Property Group providing the remaining amount from its own funds. In Czech Republic, financing has been provided by a bank syndicate composed of Helaba and ČSOB; in Poland, solely provided by Helaba; in Hungary by UniCredit Bank, Raiffeisenbank and Sberbank; and in Romania by HypoNoe Bank. ČSOB was also covering the whole transaction as the escrow agent. CPI Property Group was advised throughout the transaction by CBRE (commercial), Dentons (legal), Sentient (technical) and KPMG (financial and tax).

“This transaction clearly demonstrates that CPI Property Group now belongs to the premier league of European real estate investors. In the current competitive market, we managed to win the bidding process, agree financing with major banks and drive the acquisition process with the best in class advisors all within a six month period,” said Martin Nemecek, CEO of CPI Property Group.

“The Portfolio will boost the total number of the shopping centres in our portfolio to 20. We are well prepared to integrate the new assets into our management and to work on long-term strategies enabling us to remain fully competitive in the current and future environment,” added Tomas Salajka, director of acquisitions, asset management and sales.

“Due to its size and complexity, this was a landmark transaction for real estate in CEE. CPI Property Group’s acquisitions and financing team alongside Denton’s team of more than 30 real estate lawyers drove this extremely complex and multi-jurisdictional deal to its successful completion on time as planned in a very well organised and professional manner,” said Evan Lazar, global co-head of Dentons Real Estate.