Poland's GTC agrees to sell Belgrade office portfolio for 268 mln euro

The agreement concerns the sale of 11 buildings in five business parks - Green Heart, FortyOne, Belgrade Business Center, 19 Avenue and GTC House - with a total gross leasing area of 122,175 square metres with high occupancy rates, located in the New Belgrade district, GTC said in a statement earlier this week.

GTC added that it plans to allocate a free cash flow generated from the transaction, to be completed in the third quarter of 2021, to the development projects on both the Serbian market and in higher-rated economies.

"The sale of 11 premium class office buildings in Belgrade is a bold move which will allow us to complete our development cycle in Serbia and start a fundamentally different chapter on this market. The sale of the Serbian portfolio couldn't be timelier as we are currently in process of redefining market strategy and advancing our operations to be more sustainable and futureproof. This is a benchmark transaction in Belgrade demonstrating liquidity post covid," Yovav Carmi, president of the management board of GTC, said.

The decision to sell a portfolio of office buildings in Belgrade was motivated by GTC's strategic plans to re-establish its Serbian market position and invest in other markets in Central and Eastern Europe where the developer is active, the company noted.

"We have been looking for the opportunity to enter the Serbian market for a long time, and with the current transaction we are able to significantly strengthen our position in the region," Daniel Jellinek, founder and CEO of Indotek Group, said.

Elsewhere in Southeast Europe, GTC is present in Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria.

($ = 0.81649 euro)