Atrium European Real Estate Limited, a leading owner, operator and redeveloper of shopping centres and retail real estate in Central Europe, has signed an agreement to acquire Wars Sawa Junior, a prime retail asset located in the heart of Warsaw and in its most prominent high street retail area, for a consideration of €301.5 million. Atrium is to acquire Wars Sawa Junior from PFCEE, a fund managed by CBRE Global Investors, using a mixture of existing cash resources and external financing. Following the transaction, Atrium’s loan to value ratio will increase from 33.5 percent to approx. 37.0 percent, in line with the company’s expectations. The transaction is subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions precedent, with completion anticipated during the fourth quarter of this year.
Built in the early 1970’s, Wars Sawa Junior was originally Warsaw’s first department store. Having been remodeled, extended and upgraded a number of times, it is now one of Warsaw’s most well established and popular retail centres with footfall in excess of 60 million visitors per annum. It offers 26,000 sqm of high quality modern retail GLA which is fully let to a range of strong international and domestic retail and leisure brands such as H&M, C&A, CCC, TK Maxx and Zara. Additionally, the Retail centre offers a further 11,000 sqm of predominantly office and storage space.
Wars Sawa Junior also has exceptional connectivity, benefitting from direct access to Warsaw’s metro (two lines), trams and buses, as well as a number of convenient local car parking facilities.
The centre will benefit from several significant new developments that are under construction nearby and are planned to open in 2018. In addition, the planned projects of the Museum of Modern Art in Central Park and additional office buildings will further enhance the attractiveness of the Centre’s surroundings in the coming years.
Upon completion of the transaction, the Company will own four major shopping centres in the Polish capital with a total GLA in Poland of about 550,000 sqm. Atrium expects to create a further 26,000 sqm of GLA in the Polish capital by the end of 2018 as part of its ongoing redevelopment programme, which will ultimately add over 60,000 sqm of prime retail space in Warsaw.
Commenting on the acquisition, Liad Barzilai, CEO of Atrium Group, said: “Wars Sawa Junior is one of the most well-known, best located shopping destinations in downtown Warsaw and this high footfall retail asset is a superb addition to our Polish portfolio. Not only does Wars Sawa Junior add another large dominant retail destination to our growing Warsaw asset base, it also offers a number of exciting opportunities for redevelopment and asset management that will allow us to grow the centre and create further value, taking full advantage of its unique prime central location. The acquisition is in line with our strategy of focusing Atrium’s portfolio towards prime shopping centres in Poland and the Czech Republic with the higher quality cash flow growth that they provide.”
