More Polish centres bought

LISTED New Europe Property Investments (Nepi) Rockcastle has agreed to acquire the 41 170m² Serenada shopping centre and adjacent 27 728m² Krokus shopping centre in Kraków in Poland for a total of €249.4m. Nepi Rockcastle, a commercial property investor and developer listed on the JSE, the Bucharest Stock Exchange and the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange, said on Friday that subject to the completion of an extension, the purchase price would be increased by further payments of about €212m. The extension was anticipated to be completed by 2020 and would result in a single integrated shopping centre with a gross lettable area of more than 100 000m². The total purchase price may not exceed €469.3m. The company said the key investment considerations for concluding the acquisition included that it further advanced the company’s strategy of acquiring and developing dominant retail centres in Central and Eastern European cities with attractive macro-economic fundamentals. It said the transaction was also an opportunity to acquire and further develop a top 10 super regional shopping centre in Poland and it consolidated Nepi’s position as one of the largest dominant retail owners in Poland, the most populous country in Central and Eastern Europe. Shares in Nepi rose 4.05 percent on Friday to close at R189.21 on the JSE.