LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), February 14 (SeeNews) – Slovenian retailer Mercator [LJE:MELR] said on Thursday it has completed the sale of 10 shopping centres in Slovenia to Austria’s Supernova group for 116.6 million euro ($131.8 million).
Under the sale and purchase agreement announced in October, Mercator will take on long-term lease the parts of the centres in which it is conducting its core activity, the retailer said in a filing to the Ljubljana Stock Exchange.
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“This completes the second stage of Mercator's monetization project that will continue,” Mercator noted.
The monetization creates conditions for a new investment and development cycle of Mercator, with the logistics and distribution centre in Ljubljana standing out as the most important investment.
“Consistently with the long-term business plan, we shall continue to pursue the strategy laid down, which also includes meeting the commitments and covenants specified in the agreement with our creditor banks,” the president of the management board at Mercator Group, Tomislav Cizmic, said in the filing.
Supernova will take over the shopping centres Ajdovscina, Celje, Jesenice, Koper I, Kranj Primskovo, Kranj Savski otok, Ljubljana Siska, Postojna, Novo mesto, and Slovenj Gradec.
“Mercator still owns 81% of the real estate in which it conducts its core activities in Slovenia, and it is operating approximately one million of square metres of gross retail area region-wide,” Mercator said.
Founded in 1994, Supernova is headquartered in Graz and maintains offices in Vienna, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Bratislava and Belgrade. Supernova has been focusing on the development of and the investment in real estate.
($ = 0.8644 euro)
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