Romanian Dailyhttp://romaniandaily.ro/cat42820fresh business news about Romaniahttp://romaniandaily.ro/cat428202010-07-30T01:21:37+00:00Romanian DailyenBritish fund buys office building for 40 million euroshttp://romaniandaily.ro/cat42820/art4679757548/
The British fund managed by Charlemagne Capital, one of the largest investment firms on the London market, is to pay approximately 40 million euros for the building in the centre of Bucharest, located on Armeneasca Street, close to the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

The takeover of the Millennium Business Center is the third acquisition by the Brits since the beginning of this year and their expansion plans on the real estate segment do not stop here.
 
Charlemagne has two more class A office buildings in its portfolio, the PGV Tower where BancPost is headquartered and Construdava, acquired from Impact.

The sellers are the Greek developers Antonis Kapraras and Euroestate, a company controlled by the Kanellas family, one of the richest and most influential in Greece.

"Our client, Charlemagne Capital was one of the most important players on the real estate market this year and is interested in other projects," said Andrei Diaconescu, the partner in charge of this transaction for Capital Partners, the investment firm that assisted the buyer in this deal. Legal advisor of the British fund was the Bucharest-based office of the Clifford Chance law firm, headed by Daniel Badea.

"Although it is one of the most important real estate transactions this year, which naturally involves a complex contractual structure, negotiations went smoothly, because of the quality of the project and the efforts of the parties involved," stated Dan Borbely, partner and co-ordinator of the Real Estate department of the Tuca, Zbarcea & Asociatii law firm, which assisted the Greek sellers in this deal.

The Greeks' team also included real estate consultancy firm Eurisko. The class A office space project was initially developed by the Greek company Aegek Rom Construct, but was taken over by Antonis Kapraras and Nestor Kanellas, in a deal estimated at 5 million euros about a year ago.

Work on the Millennium Business Center began in 2001, with the developers' plans estimating an investment of approximately 20-26 million euros.

The building's total built surface area is 25,000 square metres, with the net lettable area standing at over 14,000 square metres. The tenants of the building include the World Bank and national grid company Transelectrica.

The Turkish capital company Summa Romania is erecting this building, scheduled for completion this autumn. The class A building will be a 24-level structure, with four underground levels, a ground floor, 18 office floors and a technical floor.

The Millennium Business Center, which is 72 metres tall, will be the tallest steel structured building in Romania.

Surface area per level will vary between 500 and 1,000 square metres. Besides office space, developers have provided commercial space on the first and last level of the building.

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]]>2006-07-27T07:17:00+00:00Real EstateIulianBulandraNeocity develops upscale residential project in Bucharest http://romaniandaily.ro/cat42820/art9731214127/

The real estate project will also have a private beach, soccer field, tennis and basketball courts, a swimming pool, restaurants, an aquatic club and a kindergarten.

Construction on the site will begin in November this year and the first two blocks of flats should be finalized within 18 months. NeoPeninsula is the first residential complex developed by Neocity Group in Bucharest. The company announced this year a one billion euro investment in Romania in the 2006-2009 period. Company representatives announced in March this year the construction of a residential complex in Constanta. The project is estimated at 300 million euros and will be developed in the city's historical center.

"The volume of investments proves our confidence in Romania's potential and its development," said at the time the president of the administrative board of Neocity, Ehud Ben Shach. Neocity wants to build in Constanta a 20,000 square meter mall, the project valued at 50 million euros. The Constanta project was contested by a number of NGOs that argued against the construction of the project in the area of the Tabacarie Park. The company's representatives say the Environmental Agency has established a set of restrictions because of the protests, which Neocity will thoroughly observe. The group entered the Romanian market in 1999 and constructed the office buildings Neocity Tower 1 and 2, in Bucharest. The company is also active in Israel, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Africa.

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]]>2006-07-27T06:51:00+00:00Real EstateIulianBulandraReal estate agencies' activity to be checked http://romaniandaily.ro/cat42820/art7614132912/ The office will require real estate companies to report any cash transaction that surpasses the equivalent of 10,000 euros and any other operations that are suspect. The measure is criticized by real estate agencies, which consider that the office does not have the capacity to impose such measures in this field.

"It is very bad that an office that has an entirely different object of activity transforms in a settlement authority for a market of which it does not know anything," said the general director of Intermedias Bucharest, Ion Radu Zilisteanu. The expert believes that the creation of an institution that will focus only on this issue would be very appropriate, following the model of the National Securities Commission or the Insurance Surveillance Commission. Deputy Sorin Gabriel Zamfir, president of the National Real Estate Union, does not reject the intervention of OPCSB in real estate affaires but believes that the real estate market need a institution that should focus solely on such issues.

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]]>2006-07-26T08:44:00+00:00Real EstateIulianBulandraTiriac and Riofisa bring 10m euros for new projecthttp://romaniandaily.ro/cat42820/art3581706690/
This move is meant to partly cover the funding of a commercial project developed in Timisoara.

Goldale Real Estate's share capital as a result increased from 2,000 euros (7,000 RON) to 10 million euros, by means of an equal contribution from the two shareholders of the investment vehicle.

In May this year, Goldale Real Estate acquired a slaughterhouse in Timisoara, where it will develop a commercial project, which requires an investment estimated at some 80m euros, according to statements made by representatives of the Tiriac group and published by the local press.
 
The capital increase was made by means of a cash contribution from the two partners and by the issuing of shares.

Riofisa representatives announced their intention to invest in Romania as early as the beginning of the year, attracted by the growth potential of the real estate market. The Spanish company has had a strategic agreement with the Tiriac group to develop real estate projects in Romania since the autumn of 2005.

Businessman Ion Tiriac is one of the biggest landowners on the Capital market, owning, both directly and indirectly, plots with a total surface area of up to 150 hectares. Tiriac has discreetly developed a vast real estate empire, most of which is located in the North of the Capital, near the Otopeni Airport, where the businessman owns 100 hectares of land valued at around 100 million euros, according to estimates made by sources from the real estate market.

He owns other plots in the Gendarmerie area, also in the North of the Capital, close to the Bucharest - Pitesti highway (in the Western part of the Capital), in Chitila, as well as smaller plots of land in various parts of Bucharest.

Real estate business has become the strategic development avenue for Ion Tiriac's business, whose group is involved in the banking sector, the car retail sector and in the financial services sector.

Recently, the management of Tiriac Holdings has announced that it is considering developing real estate projects worth about half a billion euros, the most important of which is the "La stejari" ("By the oak trees") project, a luxury residential complex close to the Baneasa forest. The project is estimated at some 300 million euros.

Over the past year, Spanish real estate companies have bought a lot of land in the Capital, as well as other big cities, to develop real estate projects, according to players operating in the real estate field. Spanish investors are interested in the potential the Romanian market has compared with the Spanish market.

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]]>2006-07-26T07:14:00+00:00Real EstateIulianBulandraMoritz ‘attacks’ Romanian real estate market with EUR 60 M project (UPDATE)http://romaniandaily.ro/cat42820/art7549353974/
Moritz Group thus joins other Irish players on the real estate market, such as Ballymore or RI Investment Group. “Our first project will be a mixture of office spaces and flats, placed in the central area of the city. This project will worth over EUR 60 M, depending on the plans we will have for this location,” Alex Brett, a shareholder in Moritz Holdings, one of the main developers in Ireland and Great Britain stated for ‘Ziarul Financiar.’ “We are interested in a large range of projects, from office buildings to residential and retail projects. We look at all projects on the market, no matter the size. We are also interested in other areas from Romania too. In fact, Moritz Holdings has already invested in other cities across the country, in order to develop commercial centres,” Alex Brett explained.

The legal consultancy of the Irish group here is provided by the law office Dragomir & Asociatii, which is among the first 15 players in terms of turnover. Moritz Group, with net assets worth over EUR 500 M, developed real estate projects in Ireland, Great Britain and Hungary, as starting September 2005, has started studying the real estate market in Romania. Last December, it established its own company, Victoria Ltd, and purchased an 8,000 sq m piece of land on Alexandru Ioan Cuza Street, in Victoriei Square area. “In the next five years, we will invest over EUR 50 M. We are interested in sharing this investment with some of the local banks, which expressed their interest in associating with us,” Brett also mentioned. In the last two years, the Romanian real estate market, rated at this moment as one of the most attractive business opportunities in Europe, has entered the attention of the Irish investors, who invested in office and commercial spaces field, and now are focusing on the residential segment. “I think Romania is an unknown market for Irish developers. We are a few in Romania, but not as many as we are in Hungary or Poland. Romania’s European Union accession will be an important factor in this matter,” Moritz Holdings’ official said. Alex Brett and Michael Whelan are associates and managers of Victoria Ltd Company from Bucharest. The two are also among the Moritz Group shareholders.

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]]>2006-07-25T08:07:00+00:00Real EstateIulianBulandraJules Verne builds high-tech block of flats http://romaniandaily.ro/cat42820/art6526425566/
According to JVI General Director George Doholici, after the completion of the building the company will also take charge of its administration. Clients can move in after the payment of 95 percent of the value of the apartment, the remaining five percent being a good quality guarantee that the company will collect twelve months after the transfer of ownership. Doholici insisted on the importance of gaining the clients confidence after the MTS leasing scandal in which many lost the advance they had submitted for the acquisition of a house. JVI finances part of the construction with a four million euro loan from a bank the company's official did not want to name until the signing of the contract next week. The company negotiated with the same bank the grant of a 1.25 percent discount on the mortgage credit granted to the buyers of the apartments.

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]]>2006-07-25T07:51:00+00:00Real EstateIulianBulandraEngel East Europe to take stake in Romania major residential developmenthttp://romaniandaily.ro/cat42820/art9397732755/
A due diligence process is scheduled to start within the next few days and the company and the sellers will enter into a definitive agreement regarding the project following its completion.

Signing of the final agreement is subject to the completion of further due diligence by the company, which will also start within the next few days. Executive chairman Jacob Engel said: 'We are delighted to announce this latest development project, which we believe is one of the largest projects in Romania with projected scope of sales of several hundred million Euros.

'Entering Romania - a promising market - is a result of our long involvement in the CEE residential property market and our intense analysis of the potential markets in the region,'
he added.

The project will be the company's first residential development in Romania and will be built in several stages.

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]]>2006-07-24T13:52:00+00:00Real EstateIulianBulandraING Real Estate opens Romanian branch http://romaniandaily.ro/cat42820/art6224631779/ ING Bank Romania targets a 7-9 percent market share on the retail segment in the next three years, as well as expanding its branch network to 250 units.

"We will open at least 40 self bank units in the second part of the year and we plan to open another 70 locations in 2007. In addition, we expect an increase in portfolio by 200,000 clients per year," said the appointed Deputy Director Albert Roggemans.

ING currently holds 2-3 percent of the retail market and a 6.3 percent stake of the total bank assets in Romania. Among the bank's plans announced by Negritoiu is the setting up of a company specialized in factoring, ING Commercial Finance and transforming brokerage company ING Securities into a department of the bank.

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]]>2006-07-24T05:32:00+00:00Real EstateIulianBulandraMoritz Group develops 60m-euro projecthttp://romaniandaily.ro/cat42820/art5847254592/
Moritz Group is thus joining the other Irish players already on the market, such as Ballymore and RI Investment Group.

"The first project will be a mix of offices and apartments in the city centre. It will have a development value in excess of 60 million euros depending on the planning we get on the site," Alex Brett, one of the shareholders of Moritz Holdings, which is among the most important developers on the Ireland and UK markets, told ZIARUL FINANCIAR.
 
"We are interested in a broad range of projects including offices, residential and retail. We will look at all project sizes. We are also interested in other parts of Romania. In fact our group (Moritz Holdings) have already made a "dry investment" into a number of other cities in the country to develop retail shopping centres," Alex Brett explains.

The legal advisor of the Irish group on the Romanian market is Dragomir & Asociatii law firm, which ranks among the top 15 players in terms of turnover. Dragomir & Asociatii posted 2.2 million-euro turnover in 2005 with a team of ten lawyers and its portfolio comprises companies such as Lukoil, Timken, Telemobil, Vincon Vrancea and Electrica. Moritz Group, whose net assets are worth in excess of 500 million euros, has developed projects in Ireland, the UK and Hungary. It began researching the real estate market of Romania in September 2005. It set up its Romanian company, Victoria Ltd. and purchased about 8,000 square metres on Alexandru Ioan Cuza Street close to Piata Victoriei.

"Over the next 5 years, we will definitely invest in excess of 50 million euros. We would be interested in sharing this investment with some of the local banks who have already expressed some interest in a joint venture with us," Alex Brett adds.

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]]>2006-07-24T05:26:00+00:00Real EstateIulianBulandraGLL looking for Bucharest's real estate rare pearls http://romaniandaily.ro/cat42820/art6195720128/
The complex will have 7,000 retail square meters, 11,000 square meters of office space and about 80 hotel rooms. GLL is holding talks with an existing operator on the Romanian market for the development of the hotel spaces. The company will also invest 20 million euros in a new office building with a 7,000 square meter surface next to the Charles de Gaulle Plaza. The company is analyzing other investment opportunities on the Bucharest market: "There are many office building projects in the north and center of Bucharest which will be finalized soon. We will continue to invest in Romania. Our shareholders have given us the green light to make other investments on this market," said George Leslie, GLL head of acquisitions for Eastern and Central Europe.

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