Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises Allianz Real Estate on the acquisition of Central Shopping Center in Bratislava

Clifford Chance's Prague and Frankfurt offices have advised Allianz Real Estate on the successful acquisition of 100 percent of the shares of the company that owns Central Shopping Center in Bratislava. The seller is a member of the IMMOCAP group, a Slovakian real estate developer. The transaction, with a deal value in the region of €175 million, is the first real estate investment in Slovakia for Allianz.

Central Shopping Center is one of the most prominent and best performing shopping malls in Bratislava's city center. It opened in late 2012 and comprises a total lettable area of approximately 40,000 square metres, with 31,500 square meters being solely dedicated to retail. The center has numerous well-known international brands as tenants, including Armani, Diesel, ZARA, Gant, L'Occitane and Mango.

"Our investment into Central Shopping Center is again an important step to a further diversification of Allianz's real estate portfolio and to expand our investments in retail assets," said Annette Kröger, CEO of Allianz Real Estate Germany. "At the same time it is an attractive opportunity to get exposure to the Slovakian market."

The Clifford Chance team advising on the investment was led by the Prague office's Head of Real Estate Emil Holub. He was primarily supported by senior associate Lubomír Bartál, associate Michal Pivarči, and key members of the office's Slovak law desk, comprising associate Stanislav Holec and junior associates Izabela Zaťková and Andrej Havko. The team in Frankfurt was led by Allianz relationship partner Christian Keilich and further included tax partner Jan Grabbe and real estate counsel Henning Aufderhaar.

Lead partner Emil Holub added: "We are proud to have worked with Allianz on their first venture into the Slovak real estate market. The deal gave us the opportunity to demonstrate the strengths of our dedicated Slovak law unit that operates out of our Prague office as well as attesting to our market-leading real estate capability in the region."

The Real Estate team in Prague has been particularly active in the retail M&A sector over the past couple of years having represented Union Investment on the acquisition of the Palladium shopping center in Prague as well as having acted for Unibail-Rodamco on the disposal of a 75 percent stake in the Arkády Pankrác shopping center, for Meyer Bergman on the acquisition of the Futurum Hradec Kralove shopping center and for TK Development on the disposal of Fashion Arena Outlet Center, the largest outlet shopping center in the Czech Republic.