Acquisition of Forum Gdańsk Shopping Centre, Gdansk, Poland for €250m
CATEGORY
Investment Deal of the Year, CEE
Forum Gdańsk is a 63,500sqm GLA shopping centre. Gdansk is the 6th largest city in Poland by population. The acquisition was one of the biggest single asset shopping centre transactions by value in Europe and the largest in CEE in 2022. The centre opened in 2018 and is modern and innovative in design. It is adjacent to the historical centre, one of Poland’s most popular tourist destinations, attracting more than two million visitors per year. It benefits from 840,000 people living within a 30-min drive, within the ‘Tricity region’ of Poland. The high-quality tenant mix includes anchor tenants Eurospar, Helios, H&M, Reserved, TK Maxx, Van Graaf and Zara. The property has a BREAM in-use Excellent rating. It has 1,100 parking spaces.
Since acquisition the property was independently valued (30/12/22) at €268m, 7.2% higher than the acquisition price and turnover is +27% higher in H1 2023 versus H1 2022. The transaction was concluded in record time for a deal of its size, in just two months.
Name of the deal
Acquisition of Forum Gdańsk Shopping Centre, Gdansk, Poland for €250m
The date of closing the deal
December 2022
Value of the transaction (in EUR)
250000000
Yield
7
Seller, plus brief information about the company
Multi Veste 339 B.V., which is an entity ultimately owned by Blackstone-managed funds
Consultancy which advised Seller
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, Greenberg Traurig and CBRE
Purchaser, plus brief information about the company
NEPI Rockcastle NEPI Rockcastle is Europe’s third largest listed retail real estate company portfolio value, which was €6.8bn at 30 June 2023. It is also the largest listed owner, developer and manager of shopping centres in Central and Eastern Europe, owning over 2.2 million sqm GLA of high-quality modern retail property across nine countries: Romania, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Serbia and Lithuania. It has over 475 employees
Consultancy which advised Purchaser
Linklakers
Financing institution
Funding by existing credit and cash resources plus €50 million vendor financing
Current occupancy level
93
Please say why this deal should be considered for the award
The market for retail real estate M&A in the CEE was severely impacted by Covid19 and this acquisition was and remains, one of the most significant retail real estate deals transacted in the region since the start of the pandemic in Europe in early 2020. NRP was well-placed to move quickly and conclude transactions in an M&A market which had come to a standstill due to its strong balance sheet, financial stability and operational expertise.
