Echo Investment and Griffin Real Estate (since April 2015 holding almost 66 per cent of shares in Echo Prime Properties) entered into a share sales agreement with Redefine Properties Ltd. on 01 March 2016.   The plan is that the remaining 25 per cent of shares are to remain with Echo Investment. The effective date of the agreement depends on whether the European Commission gives its consent to the transaction - the relevant decision should be issued within the next few months.

 

Together with Redifine Properties, Echo Investment and Griffin Real Estate will create the first in Poland REIT-type real estate investment fund based on property, with the South African company acting as the long-term investor. 

 

At first the trust will manage the assets worth EUR 1.18 billion, which corresponds to 17 real estates located in different parts of Poland, with the total value of almost EUR 4.5 billion (according to the data derived from the periodical report of Echo Investment pertaining to IIIQ15). “Based on the agreement, within the next three months the fund will also have a pre-emption right concerning some of the office or commercial buildings that are currently being built or designed by Echo Investment.  By implication, the value of its assets may go up to over EUR 1.7 billion,” informs Echo Investment in its press release.

 

And that is not all. The strategic goal is to extend the portfolio further by adding attractive commercial space. The transaction opens up new investment opportunities for the company both in the Polish and in foreign real estate markets.  Griffin Real Estate will manage the company’s operations. “Our aim is to establish a dominant investment trust in the Polish market for office and commercial buildings,” explains Maciej Dyjas, co-CEO Griffin Real Estate.

 

“Cooperation with a partner such as Redefine will allow us to focus more on design and construction of new commercial buildings,” adds Piotr Gromniak, chairman of the management board, Echo Investment S.A.

 

Galaxy Centre has been operating for 12 years and approximately 11 million clients visit it every year. A project to extend the centre worth PLN 100 million has just been launched.  Outlet Part was opened in November 2012.  Since then its commercial area has been steadily extending, now reaching approx. 23 thousand sq. m. <0} Last year Outlet Part recorded 2.5 million customers.  Oxygen office building at ul. Malczewskiego was opened in 2010.  It covers the total area of over 14 thousand square metres, and  Tieto Poland, Nordea Bank Polska, Enea, Vortex Polska, Medicover, DGS Business Services are among its lessees.

 

 Redefine Properties Limited has been listed on the Johannesburg stock exchange since 2000 and its value has been on the increase ever since. It manages the assets that are worth circa EUR 4 billion and its portfolio includes both commercial and industrial buildings. Apart from the Republic of South Africa it has footprint in the Australian market and through Redefine International PLC – a fund quoted on the London stock exchange - it invests in the German and British markets too.

 

Echo Investment is one of the largest investment and real property companies with Polish capital. According to Warsaw Stock Exchange, the company’s shares are worth PLN 2.4 billion, and at the end of the year its assets were valued at PLN 6.7 billion.

 

ak