Atrium agrees €298 million disposal of Polish retail assets as portfolio repositioning continues – EuropaProperty

Atrium European Real Estate Limited, a leading owner, operator and redeveloper of shopping centres and retail real estate in Central Europe, has entered into an agreement to sell two Polish shopping centres to ECE European Prime Shopping Centre Fund II, managed by the independent fund managing company ECE Real Estate Partners, for €298 million, representing around 3 percent premium to book value as at 31 March 2019. The transaction is subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions precedent and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2019.

The sale of the two Polish assets, Atrium Koszalin, located in Koszalin, and Atrium Felicity in Lublin is part of the Company’s ongoing strategy to reposition its portfolio towards large, high quality dominant retail centres in prime urban locations and capital cities. From 2015 to date, the Group has acquired €0.5 billion of prime assets and disposed of €0.7 billion of assets in secondary and tertiary location while transforming the composition of the Company’s portfolio from 153 properties in seven countries to 32 higher quality assets in four countries.

This transaction follows the disposal at book value of a land plot in Gdansk earlier this year for €28 million and the agreed purchase of the c. 7,000 sqm Kings Cross Shopping Centre in Warsaw for €43.1 million, with completion of the latter expected in the second quarter of the year.

Liad Barzilai, CEO of Atrium Group, commented: “These disposals continue the implementation of our ongoing strategy to consolidate our assets and to focus on higher quality assets in prime urban locations, that can deliver a stronger and more sustainable income in the long term. Warsaw and Prague are central to this strategy due to growing populations and very low unemployment, which are structural drivers that will support the growth performance of our assets.

“I am also very pleased that we were able to dispose of such a significant portfolio at a premium to book value. The disposal proceeds will support us in the continued optimisation of our balance sheet and further growth of our portfolio towards dominant retail centres in prime cities in our core markets.”