The building’s lettable area is 8,000 square meters and its tenants include the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, the European Union and law firm Bulboaca & Asociatii, while UTI occupies four of the eleven stories of the building.
The potential buyer is Greek investment fund Zeus Capital Partners, controlled by businessman Stelios Zavvos, who along with George Soros, Daniel Daianu and 90 other economists, all former heads of state and government or businessmen signed a joint letter demanding European authorities solutions to exit the crisis.
“I can confirm that I was in talks with investment fund Zeus over the potential sale of the UTI HQ building, but talks are on hold, at least for now,” Tiberiu Urdareanu told ZF. Zeus officials had not provided any comment by the time the story was ready for posting.
Sources close to the talks say that a deal might still be concluded over the next few weeks, though.
Zeus Capital is an investment fund that has been active in the Central and Eastern Europe for a number of years now. It bought two portfolios of tens of apartments in northern Bucharest and a plot of land in the eastern part of the city (by the Pantelimon Lake).
Investment funds can get 9% to 10% yields in euros per year from office buildings they buy, considering the lending freeze continued to erode the market value of property in Romania.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)