Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises CBRE Global Investors on the divestment of its retail portfolio in CEE

Clifford Chance has advised CBRE Global Investors on the €650 million sale of its 265,000 sq.m retail portfolio in Central and Eastern Europe to CPI PROPERTY GROUP (CPI). The transaction was closed on Wednesday 29 March 2017.

The assets in the portfolio were sold from the Property Fund Central Europe (PFCE) and Property Fund Central Eastern Europe (PFCEE), both of which were launched by ING Real Estate Investment Management before the company’s merger with CBRE Global Investors in 2011. The sale transaction encompassed the following assets: 'Olympia Plzen' shopping centre and Retail Park, 'Nisa' shopping centre and the mixed-use 'Zlatý Anděl' complex in the Czech Republic; the 'Andrássy Palace' complex, 'Polus' shopping centre, 'Campona' shopping centre and two INTERSPAR retail warehouses in Hungary; the 'Ogrody' shopping centre in Poland; and the 'Felicia' shopping centre in Romania. 

On completion of the transaction Roland Bebčák, Head of CEE Divestment at CBRE Global Investors, commented: "I believe that this is the most complex pure real estate transaction in the relatively short real estate history of the CEE region. Closing this major cross-border real-estate transaction in such a short period of time has been a genuine achievement on the part of the internal teams and external advisors, and I would like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone involved."

The Clifford Chance team was led by leading regional real estate partner Emil Holub, primarily supported by Aneta Sosnovcová, an associate with multiple international real-estate transactions under her belt. The Prague-based team was responsible for the overall coordination of the transaction, managing the delivery of services from Clifford Chance's offices in Poland, Romania, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, as well as the cooperation of a partner law firm in Hungary.

Clifford Chance associate Aneta Sosnovcová added: "This has been one of the most challenging and yet rewarding transactions of my career. It had it all: complex, pan-regional due diligence; multi-faceted financing arrangements; antimonopoly clearance in a number of jurisdictions; and, above all, a successful close!"