February 7 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's competition regulator said the notified acquisition of The Mall shopping centre in Sofia by real estate company Sofia Commercial Centre falls outside of the scope of its regulatory competences.
Sofia Commercial Centre is a subsidiary of Bucharest-listed real estate investment trust (REIT) New Europe Property Investments (NEPI).
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
The notified deal for acquisition of 100% of the shares of AP Retail I by NE Property Cooperatief, a Netherlands-based subsidiary of NEPI and owner of Sofia Commercial Centre, falls outside of the scope of the regulator, the Commission for Protection of Competition said in a statement on Monday.
AP Retail I is owned by Cyprus-based Fortore Holdings.
In January, Sofia-based newspaper Capital reported that Greek-based private equity real estate group Assos Capital owns 85% of AP Retail I. The newspaper, citing market sources, reported that the transaction is part of a package deal worth 180 million euro ($190.5 million) under which Sofia Commercial Centre will acquire The Mall for 160 million euro and a Carrefour hypermarket owned by UniCredit Bulbank for 20 million euro.
The Mall opened in 2010, after two years earlier Assos Capital acquired for 200 million euro the shopping, entertainment and office complex project from Carrefour Bulgaria EOOD, a joint venture between Carrefour S.A. and Greece's Marinopoulos S.A. in Bulgaria, data published on Assos Capital's website shows.
The Mall covers an area of 66,000 sq m and accommodates some 200 stores.
In Southeastern Europe, NEPI, which is also listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, owns 15 shopping centres in Romania, one in Serbia and another one in Croatia, according to information posted on the company's website.
($= 0.93817 euro)