Malls, the new commercial centre format that emerged on the Romanian market after the 1989, have recently become an important customer for banking groups operating on the domestic market.
"Investments aimed at malls are important and any developer needs financing from a banking group. In their turn, banks have grown increasingly interested in releasing financing for this sector," says Iulian Dascalu, chairman of Iulius Group. The company invested 45 million euros in the Timisoara-based Iulius Mall commercial centre, opened late last week. Most of the funding, some 37 million euros, came in the form of banking loans granted by BCR.
"This is our second mall, after the one in Iasi, and financing was easier to get, since we already had a past history on the market," adds Dascalu.
The Iulius Mall Iasi involved investments worth 7 million dollars (7.6 million euros) at the moment it was opened in 2000, and was partly financed by Emporiki Bank. The commercial complex was this year expanded following investments of 6 million euros, with financing again provided by the same Emporiki Bank.
City Mall, another commercial centre officially opened last week in the capital city, also involved financing from banking sources. "This is an important investment. Part of the funds came from Bancpost, but we also have in view a refinancing of the project," maintains Valentin Preda, general manager with Jaguar Development, the developer of City Mall. Anchor Grup, the developer of Bucuresti Mall and Plaza Romania, the most important mall type commercial centres in the capital city, also turned to banking groups for investment financing. Plaza Romania alone, a commercial centre opened last autumn, involved a loan worth 45 million euros from Bank Austria Creditanstalt/HVB.
Beside banking loans contracted for the financing of investments, Anchor Grup this year received from Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BA-CA) and HVB Romania, a loan of more than 120 million euros, financing the construction of a new office building, Anchor Plaza, as well as for the refinancing of loans for Bucuresti Mall and Plaza Romania.
Iulius Mall Timisoara has a total built area of 83,000 square metres and over 200 occupants renting space, including the Univers''all store network and the Media Galaxy electronics and home appliances retail chain.
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