Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises Atrium on the sale of Czech retail portfolio

The Clifford Chance Prague Real Estate team have advised Atrium European Real Estate on the successful sale of a portfolio of retail assets in the Czech Republic. The sale by Atrium, undertaken as part of the rebalancing of its Czech portfolio, included the disposal of ten of its non-strategic assets to a private client account managed by Palmer Capital, a real estate investment management company. The asset value of the sale exceeded EUR 100 million.

Encompassing a total lettable area of approximately 86,200 sqm, the portfolio of retail assets includes eight hypermarkets and two associated retail parks located in Prague and seven other cities throughout the Czech Republic. The retail parks are comprised of smaller format retail properties anchored by Albert hypermarkets (AHOLD) with other reputable local and international brands making up the catalogue of tenants, including dm-drogerie, Takko, Deichmann and Sportisimo.

Josip Kardun, CEO of Atrium Group, said the sale of the portfolio marked an important milestone in the Atrium Group's evolution and continued the process of divesting legacy non-strategic assets in the Czech Republic. "It also represents another significant step forward in our strategy of reweighting our portfolio and income towards well-established, dominant shopping centres, where we see greater opportunities to create value," Kardun said.

The Clifford Chance team advising on the transaction was led by the Prague office's Head of Real Estate Emil Holub. He was primarily supported by associate Milan Rákosník and junior associate Eliška Kadlčková.

Lead partner Emil Holub added: "We are very pleased to have another opportunity to work alongside Atrium and further strengthen our valued, long-term relationship. It was a complex transaction and we were happy that we could demonstrate our strengths in many aspects of our real estate and real estate finance expertise."

Real Estate is a core practice at Clifford Chance and the team has represented a number of international and local investors on significant retail acquisitions and disposals within the Czech Republic. Our track record for Atrium includes advising on the acquisition of shopping centres Atrium Flora in Prague and Atrium Palác in Pardubice and several disposal transactions of non-strategic assets or portfolios of assets.