CEE real estate developer, investor, and operator, Prime Kapital, announced that it has raised a €125 million green club loan facility for its development joint-venture with listed property investor MAS plc, a real estate investor listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
The multi-tranche facility is provided by a consortium of four domestic and international banks and was raised on a project finance basis for five new commercial retail properties that Prime Kapital recently opened in Romania and a sixth one currently under development. These are Prime Kapital’s new Zalau Value Centre, Dambovita Mall (in Targoviste), Sepsi Value Centre (in Sfantu Gheorghe), Barlad Value Centre, Prahova Value Centre (in Ploiesti), as well as the retail mall project, currently under construction, in Alba Iulia.
With the local and head office operations of the Raiffeisen Bank and Alpha Bank financial services groups acting as arrangers and underwriters of the transaction, the new €125 million facility complements other lines of committed long-term capital available to Prime Kapital for project development purposes.
Prime Kapital Partner Johan de Lange commented: “We are pleased to have reached financial close on this landmark financing for several of Prime Kapital’s new commercial centres throughout Romania. The level of appetite that we have encountered among local and international banks during the transaction for this multi-property financing was really encouraging. We believe that the institutional funding support provided by the banks for the transaction is a validation of Prime Kapital’s retail asset investment strategy with its strong focus on geo-diversified, locally dominant, sustainable green developments that have substantial and meaningful community impact. We wish to convey our appreciation to our colleagues at Raiffeisen Bank and Alpha Bank, as well as the legal team at Dentons for their professionalism in helping us make this happen”.
“We are really pleased about the successful openings of Dambovita Mall as well as the Sepsi, Barlad, and Prahova Value Centers amidst all the uncertainty created by the Covid pandemic during the last 24 months. The exceptional levels of tenant support that we have seen for these developments translated into robust post-opening operational performances at pre-pandemic levels, which we see as not only a clear validation of Prime Kapital’s investment and development strategy in CEE but also made these assets easily bankable”, says Mr. de Lange.
In line with the sustainability objectives of Prime Kapital and its funding partner MAS plc, the proceeds of this new facility will support the development of a further number of new green projects that form part of Prime Kapital’s substantial secured development pipeline in CEE.
Periklis Voulgaris, Executive Vice President of Wholesale Banking at Alpha Bank Romania, says: “This is an important project in terms of value and complexity, which supports Prime Kapital with its development plans. Moreover, this financing aligns with our strategy on sustainable and green projects that provide real value to the community and the business environment.”
Raiffeisen Bank S.A. acted as debt coordinator of the financing, which was arranged and underwritten by Raiffeisen Bank S.A., Alpha Bank Romania S.A., Raiffeisen Bank International AG and Alpha Bank S.A. with Alpha Bank Romania acting as facility and security agent. The banking and property law teams at the international law firm Dentons acted as legal advisors to the lenders.
Alpha Bank Romania is a member of Alpha Bank Group, one of the largest banking and financial groups in Greece, founded in 1879 by J.F. Costopoulos. The international activities of the Group extend, in addition to Romania, to the United Kingdom, Luxemburg and Cyprus.
