Charlemagne Capital buys 50% in 110m-euro Asmita project

The British Charlemagne Capital company, one of the most active buyers on the real estate market, has bought 50% in the Asmita Gardens residential project, which will be worth 110 million euros upon completion.
Asmita Gardens is developing a 788-flat residential project in the Splaiul Unirii-Calea Vacaresti area, which will be developed in two stages until the spring of 2009. “Asmita will be handling the management and development of the project and Charlemagne will take care of the funding. The transaction has an equity component, whereby Charlemagne bought the 50% stake, and a funding component that indicates Charlemagne will commit the necessary funds to run the project,” Vlad Busila, partner with investment firm Capital Partners, the broker of the deal and of the funding for the Asmita Gardens project, commented for ZIARUL FINANCIAR. The funding for the project comes from Alpha Bank. The first tranche released by the bank will amount to 16 million euros, Busila adds.
Sources on the real estate market say the equity component of the deal exceeds 10 million euros, that is the amount Charlemagne Capital pays in cash to Asmita India for the 50% stake in the project. The financial commitment of the British investor in the project will later increase by provision of the necessary funds for the development. Charlemagne Capital, which manages several property investment funds, became the owner of the class A office buildings Millennium Business Center, PGV Tower (Bancpost headquarters) and Construdava this year, which were worth a total of 83 million euros.
“We will deliver all the flats in the first phase of the Asmita Gardens project by September 2008. We will continue to develop residential and office projects on the capital city market in the next few years and Charlemagne Capital will be first on the list of choices for partners to run our projects,” stated James Anthony, manager and shareholder of Asmita SA.
In August, Asmita SA sold the title to the project and the land on which it will be built to Asmita Gardens SRL, in a deal worth about 16m euros, Official Gazette data reveals. Out of the entire amount, 14 million euros account for the value of the land and 2 million euros are used for the acquisition of supplies and the title in the project.
Asmita Gardens, one of the biggest residential projects in Romania, will include more than 800 flats, 150,000 square metres built, seven apartment buildings (ground floor plus 24 floors each). Based on price, the project targets medium to luxury customers. The development will be built by Austrian Strabag, while Colliers serves as the real estate broker. The architect of the Asmita Gardens is Westfourth Architecture, whose portfolio also includes America House office building. The manager of the Asmita Gardens project is Gardiner & Theobald company.