Erste refinances Semanatoarea offices with 60 million euros

Austrian investment fund Europolis, which took over the first two office buildings erected by Ion Radulea within the Sema Parc project in Bucharest for more than 100 million euros, got an about 60 million-euro loan to refinance this investment, one of the few loans granted by banks to real estate investors at this time.
"Yesterday (Tuesday i.e.) we signed with Erste the deal to refinance the investment made in buying the offices in the Sema Parc project. We got this loan, which accounts for 60% of the total investment, because we have had a long working relationship with Erste. However, I wouldn't say it was easy, like making a phone call and solving everything with that," Helmut Neubauer, managing director of Europolis Real Estate Asset Management, part of the Volksbank group, told ZF.
The two office buildings, named River Place and River View Place after the acquisition, have a 46,000 square metre lettable area and make up one of the biggest business parks in Bucharest, close to the Semanatoarea underground station.
At the same time, the deal whereby the Austrians at Europolis took over the offices from businessman Ion Radulea is one of the biggest on the market.
"The deal was completed at the end of March, when we took over the last stake, 41.5% and we paid the rest of the money, approximately 25 million euros. The total value of the deal exceeded 100 million euros, considering the fact that we took over the loans taken for the building process," Neubauer added.
The buildings are rented in full, with tenants including Romsoft, Pagini Aurii and mobile telephony operator Zapp, acquired by Cosmote this year.
"The buildings remain fully rented because rents are decent, about 14-15 euros/square metre per month. Although it is a very good project, we had to market the location with a lower level of rent because it is the first major conversion of an industrial space into an office project," the Europolis official says.