The land plot was part of Bucharest’s private domain, while the tower is managed by Bucharest Financial Plazza that is part of BCR group, being controlled by BCR Real Estate Management.
At the same time, the bank owned the building at the crossroads between Lipscani, Smardan and Stavropoleos streets of Bucharest’s old town, which was raised at the beginning of last century and where Bucharest mayor Sorin Oprescu wanted to set up Bucharest’s Picture Gallery exhibiting the works of art owned by the municipality.
According to BCR data, the building rated as an A-group historic monument had a net accounting value of RON39.4 million. The ground floor of the two-floor building held a large branch of the bank, but this competed with at least another three in the vicinity so that it could be easily closed down. The sale value of the building stood at RON60.2 million.
At the same time, the value of the land plot part of the swap amounted to RON43.6 million. At the end, the bank reported a gain of almost RON21 million from this deal.
According to City Hall valuations, the Lipscani building was worth EUR13.9 million (around RON61 million), while the land underneath the Victoriei tower was worth almost EUR8.2 million (around RON36 million), with the gap standing at around EUR5.7 million.
Market sources state the deal was discussed last year inclusively between mayor Oprescu and Andreas Treichl, chief executive officer of Erste Group, the majority stakeholder in BCR.
The Austrians also had an offer for the Lipscani building from the part of neighbor Mugur Isarescu, the central bank governor, who also wanted to fit out a museum in the building.
“Bancorex tower”, with 18 floors and a three-floor parking lot, was completed in 1997 and after Bancorex went bankrupt in 1999, it was taken over by BCR together with the healthy part of the former state-owned bank. Raised by French company Bouygues, it was the first headquarters of this type of a domestic bank and cost around $30 million.
BCR group owns land plots and buildings worth almost RON1.6 billion, according to end of 2013 data. The real estate portfolio was even bigger in the past, with BCR also owning seaside and mountain resort hotels, but the Austrians in 2007 embarked on a process of selling non-core assets.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)