NEPI CEO Martin Slabbert confirmed Monday the fund is undergoing a due diligence process in view of acquiring Promenada Mall.
“We are among the investors interested in this project and NEPI has sufficient financial resources to buy Promenada. We hope to finalize the takeover soon but it is not only up to us, it is also up to the seller,” Slabbert told MEDIAFAX.
NEPI, one of the largest property investors on the local market, manages shopping centers totaling 330,000 square meters in Romania.
Sources on the market told MEDIAFAX recently that Austrian real estate developer Raiffeisen evolution was negotiating the sale of the Promenada shopping center and had shortlisted five bids.
Interested investors included GTC, which owns the City Gate office compound in Bucharest and Galleria shopping malls in Arad, Piatra Neamt and Buzau, and Greek businessman Ioannis Papalekas, one of the most active buyers of real estate projects in recent years, the sources said.
They added Raiffeisen evolution would be willing to sell the mall in Bucharest for more than EUR150 million and the buyer would also have to take over a EUR95 million loan the developer took from Raiffeisen Bank to build the shopping center.