August 25 (SeeNews) - Polish real estate developer Globe Trade Centre (GTC) said that it plans to develop a new office building with a leasable area of 9,200 sq m in Bulgarian capital Sofia.
Bulgaria-registered GOC EAD, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GTC, acquired on June 1 a 2,417 sq m land plot in Sofia for a total amount of 4,700 euro ($5,523), the Polish company said in its consolidated financial report for the first half of 2021 on Tuesday.
GTC said that its portfolio in Sofia generated a gross margin of 4.3 million euro in the first half of 2021, compared with 4.5 million euro in the same period of last year.
According to the financial report, lockdowns in Poland and Bulgaria which continue to negatively impact the operations of the malls resulted in a loss of margin from operations in the six-month period ended June 30 in comparison with the same period of last year.
GTC's revenue from its assets in Sofia increased to 5.7 million euro in the first six months of the year, compared with 5.5 million euro in January-June 2020.
At the end of June, GTC's retail portfolio in Sofia, of some 23,000 square metres was 96% occupied, while its office portfolio of 44,000 square metres was 84% occupied. The average rent for the company's retail space was 20.9 euro per square metre, while for its office buildings it stood at 14.5 euro per square metre.
GTC's assets in Sofia totalled 195.2 million euro at the end of June, up from 191.8 million euro at the end of 2020.
GTC currently operates four projects in Bulgaria - Mall of Sofia, Sofia Tower 1, Advance Business Centre 1 and Advance Business Center 2. Last year, GTC launched construction of the 8,300 sq. m. Sofia Tower 2 class A office project in Sofia. In April, the company's unit Dorado 1 took out a 9.2 million euro loan from DSK Bank and its Hungarian parent OTP Group, in order to finance the construction activities.
Elsewhere in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, the GTC operates in Poland, Serbia, Hungary, Romania and Croatia where it directly manages, acquires and develops chiefly high-quality office and retail real estate assets in prime locations.
($ = 0.851080 euro)