Croatia's Ingra To Buy 25% of Arena Shopping Centre in Zagreb

Local Poslovni Dnevnik daily, however, reported that Ingra would pay 55 million euro for the minority stake. After the deal TriGranit will own 75% of the Arena Centre project.

"At this moment we are unable to say how much money will be needed to finance [the purchase], because calculations are yet to begin," Ingra's marketing and corporate comunications director Danko Druzijanic told SeeNews in a statement.

The cost of the project was estimated at 220 million euro ($278 million) and the new shopping centre should be opened in the spring of 2010, Trigranit said earlier this year. The construction of the Arena Centre started in September.

The shopping centre will have 175,000 square metres of built-up area and will feature 10 large and 200 small and medium-sized shops, a 10,000-square metre Ipercoop hypermarket, nine multiplex cinema theatres and a 3,500-car parking capacity.

INGRA's shares traded at 61.30 kuna on the Zagreb Stock Exchange by 1325 GMT on Monday, down from Friday's close of 72.50 kuna.

($ = 0.792 euro)