EfTEN Real Estate Fund 4 has acquired a complex of three commercial properties in Vilnius, beside the highway to Molėtai, from Arginta Group, in a sale and leaseback transaction.
The complex consists of three buildings with a total of over 16,000 sqm of industrial, logistics and office space. Properties were built in 2007, 2012 and 2018 with high-quality materials and state-of-the-art technologies to meet modern tenants’ needs, and include solar panels, wind turbines and charging stations for electric cars.
Situated in a growing innovation and manufacturing district, the buildings are just 12 km from the Lithuanian capital’s city centre and 15 km from Vilnius International Airport. Good access to other parts of the country thanks to the location on the A14 highway, which will be further improved by Vilnius ring road extension towards A14.
The seller, Arginta Group, upon closing of the transaction also signed a long-term lease agreement and will continue using the premises. Other tenants include Armila, one of the largest international wholesale pharmaceutical distributors in Lithuania, Brolis Semiconductors, a producer of finest infrared laser products, and Arginta Engineering, which designs, manufactures and exports customized industrial equipment.
“We’re pleased to see the interest of many investors and look forward to a long and successful partnership with EfTEN. We aim to focus on our core business and intend to invest freed up capital in our main business activities. One of our priority projects, where we aim to use the freed-up capital, is the development of the Manufacturing Innovation Center next to the properties sold in this transaction. This Centre will be a place for companies of all sizes to test and develop their innovations,” says Arginta Group CEO Gintautas Kvietkauskas.
“The Arginta complex is our fund’s first investment in Vilnius, which perfectly fits our diversification strategy in terms of asset class and location. We acquired high-quality buildings, which are leased out on a long-term basis to a reliable group of companies. In addition, we see a strong potential of the surrounding area to become one of the key high-tech and innovation districts in Vilnius and we certainly have plans for further expansion here,” says EfTEN’s Lithuania Country Manager Laurynas Žilys.
According to Newsec Baltics Head of Transactions, Andrius Švolka: “This deal and other planned developments in the vicinity demonstrates the strong potential of the location to become a hub of manufacturing and technological innovations in Lithuania. Also, this sale and leaseback transaction once again proves that the demand for quality industrial and logistics properties with solid lease agreements is particularly strong among local and foreign funds.”
“You could say that within the commercial real estate market, which is already quite active, the industrial and logistics property segment is becoming investors’ real favourite. We are currently seeing a rebirth of the industrial sector – one of the few that last year not only withstood the downturn but even grew. We are glad that both parties to this transaction – the buyer and the seller – are Luminor’s clients, which allowed us to arrange the financing terms quickly and effectively,” notes Gediminas Kesminas, real estate financing expert at Luminor Bank.
The transaction was completed on 31 March 2021. The acquisition was financed by Luminor bank. The legal advisor to the seller was the law firm Ellex, that to the buyer was FORT Legal.
