City Mall put up for auction for 33m euros, 70% less than last transaction

City Mall Shopping Center in Bucharest, which went bankrupt at the end of last year, will be put up for auction on March 31st for a starting price of 33 million euros, 70% lower than the transaction concluded four years ago, in which Australian group APN European Retail Trust paid over 100 million euros for the mall in the Eroii Revoluţiei area.
In other words, the banks - UniCredit and Bancpost - which have a 40 million-euro exposure to the project, took on a potential loss of nearly 20%, while the remaining lenders of Victoria Holding, City Mall owner, will probably not get even one eurocent back.
The mall went bankrupt with 75 million euros in debts, with its main creditors, outside the banks, being the Australians at APN, which financed the mall's activity through several loans.
"The conditions of contract will be put up for sale at the beginning of March. In order to take part in the auction, one needs to come up with guarantees of 5% or 10% of the starting price, but we have yet to decide on the value. There are around ten investors interested, but none of them has made an offer yet. Anyway, I am very optimistic that it will sell quickly," Radu Lotrean, partner of Casa de Insolvenţă Transilvania (Transilvania Insolvency Firm), court-appointed liquidator of City Mall, told ZF.