February 21 (SeeNews) - Real estate investment company Hyprop said on Wednesday it has, through its UK-based joint venture company Hystead Limited, entered into an agreement to acquire a 90% interest in a company that owns two shopping centres in Croatia.
Hystead is owned by Hyprop with a 60% stake and PDI Investment Holdings, which holds the remainder.
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"The purchase consideration net of the 154.4 million euro ($190.3 million) asset-based finance is 129.1 million euro, of which Hyprop’s 60% effective share is approximately 77.5 million euro," it said in a filing with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
The shopping centres which are the subject of the deal are City Center one Zagreb West and City Center one Zagreb East, both located in Zagreb.
The acquisition will be carried out through a joint venture company to be incorporated by Hystead (as to 90%) and Austria's WKB 3, which has been the property and asset manager of the two shopping centres. Its operating company, CC Real, was founded in 2006 and is based in Vienna, with additional offices in Zagreb.
CC Real is currently a 20% shareholder in the shopping centres, and will retain a 10% interest after the acquisition.
The transaction will be effective upon the fulfilment of all conditions precedent.
The acquisition is in line with Hyprop’s strategy to own high-quality, income producing shopping centres in Central and Eastern Europe.
It will grow Hystead’s portfolio of prime, dominant regional shopping centres in Central and Eastern Europe to six centres in five countries, with Hystead’s share of gross asset value exceeding 740 million euro, the company said.
This is Hystead’s second entry into a EU country following the acquisition of a mall in Bulgaria.
In July Hystead Limited acquired Bulgaria’s AP Retail I, owner of shopping centre The Mall in the capital Sofia, for a total of 156 million euro, through its subsidiary Balkan Retail.
Hystead has also secured exclusivity on a further shopping centre in the Croatian city of Split, also owned and managed by companies associated with CC Real. The terms of this potential transaction have not been finalised.
($=0.8114 euro)