Czech-owned real estate developer Portland Romania
is in talks to sell one of the largest projects in Bucharest, the Bucharest Business Park (BBP), market sources told Ziarul Financiar.
Experts put the project”s value at 50-60 million euros and the players that are well-positioned in the race to buy BBP include Austrian investment fund CA Immo AG and Dutch-owned Middle Europe Investments.
“Several potential investors have expressed interest in this project. However, we signed a letter of understanding with CA Immo this year,” said Ghenadie Bobeica, a director with Portland Romania, the project”s developer.
The understanding with CA Immo is valid until the autumn of this year, the Portland Romania official said, though without offering any further details as to the talks for the sale of Bucharest Business Park.
According to sources close to the talks, Middle Europe Investments is interested in the acquisition of BBP because of its plans to enter the Romanian real estate market. Discussions on the sale of BBP have already reached an annual yield in the region of 8%, close to levels on the Czech and Hungarian markets, the quoted sources say.
“We have not signed anything yet. All I can tell you is that anything is possible,” says Bobeica, who forecasts that yields for investments in office buildings in Romania will not fall below 8%.
CA Immo and Middle Europe Investments officials had made no comment by the time this story was ready for print.
The Bucharest Business Project comprises four independent buildings that offer some 18,500 square metres of office space. Portland Romania officials say the value of the investment is 30 million euros.
According to Bobeica, the first tenants are already moving into Bucharest Business Park, with the last set to move in August, as the business centre was rented long before it was actually completed.
BBP tenants include construction materials producer CarpatCement Holding, IBM, British American Tobacco (BAT) and law firm Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen. ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro ; adrian.mirsanu@zf.ro