With this transaction TREI Real Estate effectively consolidated its Hungarian real estate operation. Following the disposal of its portfolio in Austria, it was the second successful delivery of the group on their strategic goal of selling operating properties and focussing on new developments, mostly in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and the USA.

With the exception of two assets all the elements of the portfolio are leased to Spar Hungary on long term. The total size of the deal was in excess of 39,500 sq m, geographically spread around the entire country, including 13 locations in the capital, Budapest. In the past the properties were exclusively leased to the retail chain Plus, the retail brand solely owned by the Tengelmann Group until its sale in 2008 to Spar Hungary.

The closing on the deal took place on the last day of the month with Erste Asset Management who is managing funds close to HUF 1,500 billion, including HUF 450 billion of real estate.

”This is an important step in achieving our strategic goals. Besides consolidating in a smaller number of countries, focus has shifted more towards development of residential properties as well as retail parks. With the sale of our portfolios in Austria and Hungary as well as the sale of the entire logistics portfolio in the last 2.5 years, the company’s focus now once again is on growth” says Pepijn Morshuis, CEO of Trei Real Estate GmbH.

 “The Erste Real Estate HUF Fund and the Erste Real Estate EUR Fund further increased their already significant retail portfolio with this transaction, which already included a significant size of retail properties leased to Spar Hungary. Given this transaction, the number of assets leased to our excellent partner, Spar Hungary, just got even bigger fully in line with our investors’ expectation.  The duration of income of the two acquiring funds has considerably increased which together with our new investments in excess of EUR 110 million are expected to deliver robust profits to the funds’ shareholders.” – commented Balázs Pázmány, Chairman of the Board of Erste Asset Management.

Colliers International supported TREI Real Estate on the transaction from its preparation until its successful closing.

“We are delighted to have been able to support the Tengelmann Group on the consolidation of its Hungarian property portfolio. With this transaction Hungary produced the strongest first half of investment deals exceeding EUR 800mln. This was an important deal following a complex process where a larger number of institutional property investors had participated in. Following this transaction, Colliers International anticipates a great number of retail acquisitions and it is highly likely that since the existence of the modern capital markets in Hungary, this year retail will play the most dominant role for the first time.” – highlighted Bence Vécsey MRICS, Director of Capital Markets at Colliers.

The Hungarian office of CMS Cameron McKenna provided legal advice to TREI Real Estate on the transaction.

Source:  TREI Real Estate, Erste Asset Management, Colliers International