SOFIA (Bulgaria), July 21 (SeeNews) – UK-based investment company Hystead Limited said on Friday it has acquired Bulgaria’s AP Retail I, owner of shopping centre The Mall in the capital Sofia, for a total of 156 million euro ($181.6 million), through its subsidiary Balkan Retail.
“The acquisition of The Mall is a continuation of our efforts to own a high quality portfolio of shopping centres in Southeast Europe (SEE),” Pieter Prinsloo, CEO of Hystead Limited’s majority owner – Hyprop Investments Limited, said in the press release.
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The transaction is subject to approval by Bulgaria’s Commission for Protection of Competition.
The deal, Hystead’s first acquisition in an EU member state, is aimed at improving the overall quality of the fund’s portfolio.
The Mall is Hystead’s fourth acquisition in Southeast Europe (SEE), with the combined gross value of the four deals amounting to 460 million euro.
Hyprop Investments’s strategy for Southeast Europe is to acquire leading shipping centres through Hystead, the press release reads.
Hyprop Investments holds a 60% stake in Hystead.
In October 2016, Hyprop Investments said Hystead had acquired Skopje City Mall, the largest shopping centre in Macedonia, from Amsterdam-based Balfin Finance for 92 million euro.
In February 2016, Hyprop Investments announced it had bought a 60% stake in each Delta City Belgrade and Delta City Podgorica for a total of 121.7 million euro.
The Mall covers 52,000 sq m, 99.7% of which occupied by the nearly 200 tenants.
Last month, Bucharest-listed real estate investment trust NEPI signed deals to buy Serdika Center shopping mall in Bulgarian capital Sofia, Serdika Office building and the land, on which the property is built for a total price of 207.4 million euro.
($ = 0.8590 euro)