The building developed by Avrig 35 and CA Immo was acquired by Accession Fund for EUR80 million in 2006 in the biggest real estate transaction in Romania at the time.
Accession Fund, managed by GLL Real Estate Partners, was established in 2004 and shareholders include insurer Generali and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. It owned the office building via Centrul International CDG SRL but sold it to HR GLL CDG Plaza, controlled by investment fund HR GLL Central Europe.
HR GLL CDG Plaza shareholders operated an almost EUR39 million capital increase last year in order to “finance the acquisition of the piece of property (land and building) known as Charles de Gaulle Plaza,” according to the Official Gazette.
“The deal was worth less than EUR70 million and was self-funded, so the existing bank loan was repaid,” sources close to the talks told ZF.
Charles de Gaulle Plaza has a lettable area of almost 23,000 square meters and its biggest tenant is mobile phone operator Vodafone.
The Electronic Archive for Security Interests in Movable Property (AEGRM) shows Charles de Gaulle Plaza had been financed by a syndicate of banks comprising Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, UniCredit Bank and BAWAG. Centrul International CDG’s debt stood at some EUR57 million at the end of 2012, according to its filing with the Finance Ministry.
GLL Real Estate representatives did not provide any comment by the time the story was ready for posting. However, in a phone interview for ZF last spring, GLL officials said they were happy with the investment in Bucharest and were looking into the possibly of making another acquisition because of the higher yields than those of mature markets.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)