Austrian investment fund Immoeast, which used to make acquisition after acquisition on the local real estate market two years ago, is to sell some of the assets in its portfolio, including Romania, where the market value of its properties had been assessed at more than one billion euros, according to the latest financial report of the company.
The Austrians invested 400 million euros on the Romanian market last year alone, while Immoeast’s investments in 2007 exceeded 600 million euros, as shown in the "Top Deals" ZF Yearbook.
"Immoeast has had a new manager in office for a few weeks now, whose immediate task is to develop a strategy whereby we decide what properties to keep in our portfolio and what to sell. We probably won’t get too much for certain properties at this time, which is why we may wait for the growth cycle," Edgar Rosenmayr, Immoeast’s chief operating officer told ZF at the MIPIM real estate summit in Cannes. He is also one of the key people of the Austrians for acquisitions on the Romanian market.
From 2006 through early 2008 Immoeast was the most active buyer of properties on the domestic market, adding Polus Center Cluj, Euromall Pitesti and Armonia Center (Arad) shopping centres to its portfolio, as well as important office buildings in Bucharest, such as S-Park and Victoria Park.
The Austrian company also signed many forward-purchase contracts, committing to buy projects such as West Gate Craiova, Gold Plaza Baia Mare and Polus Center Constanta in full upon completion.
"That was the portfolio expansion strategy at the time. We had noticed a good opportunity for growth, but the financial crisis has completely changed the environment. Some acquisitions turned out not to be as attractive as we had assumed them to," Rosenmayr commented on the acquisition policy.
The company is going through troubled times now, after the value of the its portfolio went down and its shares plummeted by more than 90% compared with their high, taking the market value of the company to approximately 600-700 million euros.
"If the projects of the developers with which we have partnerships in place are completed, we will buy them as we committed to do. Banks are slowly returning to the negotiation table. We resumed talks with Austrian banks, as well as with local banks and with EBRD to get financing," Rosenmayr said.
Erste and RZB, the owners of BCR and Raiffeisen, are two of the most important banks that have backed Immoeast’s acquisitions campaigns.
"Fortunately, the loan portfolio is comfortable, so that we are not under pressure to refinance. We are not in exclusive talks with any investor to sell a property in Romania and will not agree to sell at ‘distressed’ prices," Rosenmayr added.
Immoeast’s boss is optimistic about the local market, though he expects it to revert to the figures it posted eighteen months ago no sooner than three to five years.
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