“Raiffeisen evolution has received offers from several investors and has shortlisted five bids,” the sources said.
GTC, which owns the City Gate office compound in Bucharest and Galleria shopping malls in Arad, Piatra Neamt and Buzau, is said to be among interested investors, as well as Greek businessman Ioannis Papalekas, one of the most active buyers of real estate projects in recent years.
Negotiations could last a while considering the Austrian developer would be willing to sell the mall in Bucharest for more than EUR150 million. A prospective buyer would also have to take over a EUR95 million loan Raiffeisen evolution took from Raiffeisen Bank to develop the shopping center.
Raiffeisen evolution did not offer any comment.
Raiffeisen evolution opened Promenda Mall mid-October 2013. The mall was the last stage of the Floreasca City project, a EUR300 million investments that also includes two office buildings, among which Sky Tower. The office buildings have been sold to Raiffeisen group.
“We are developers, we develop a project, lease it out and then we want to sell it as soon as possible to raise money to develop other projects . We will keep Promenada Mall for a while and then we’ll see. We have received offers but we have no plans to sell the project in the upcoming months,” Markus Neurauter, managing director of Raiffeisen evolution, said at that time.
Raiffeisen evolution project development is headquartered in Vienna and is present in Austria and Central and Eastern Europe.
Its portfolio includes residential and retail projects, hotels, as well as multipurpose real estate projects.
Raiffeisen Holding Vienna, Strabag and Uniqua Insurance control 20% of Raiffeisen evolution each, and the remaining 40% is owned by Raiffeisen Central Bank (RZB).