Hungarian developer Trigranit has confirmed it has completed the sale of Bonarka City Center (BCC) in Krakow to Rockcastle for €361 mln.
The deal, which was reported this summer, forms part of a trio of recent acquisitions by the South African real estate investment manager in Poland totalling €522 mln.
In a financial filing in August, the Mauritius and Johannesburg-listed investor noted it has signed preliminary agreements in June to acquire BCC in the city of Krakow for €361 mln. In a separate deal with Aviva this summer it also acquired Focus Malls in Zielona Góra and Piotrków Trybunalski for €161 mln.
The 92,400 m2 BCC was developed by Trigranit and opened in 2009. French supermarket retailer Auchan separately owns the 20,600 m2 it occupies. The vendor is named as Dutch-registered company Trios Dutch Holdings, but the ultimate owner is a European fund managed by US-based private equity company TPG. The fund, TPG RE II European Holdings, acquired Trigranit and most of its standing assets, including BCC, a year ago.
TriGranit said it will remain as the property manager of the mall for two years. BCC and its 270 retail units attracted a footfall of 14.5 million in 2015.
In addition to managing BCC, TriGranit will remain active in Krakow and is currently developing three office buildings in the popular ‘Bonarka for Business’ (B4B) area.
Rockcastle reported that the investment volume included the assumption of €191 mln of financing on the asset and the transaction reflected an acquisition yield of 5.4%.
The South African fund first entered Poland in March 2015 when it acquired the 18,000 m2 Solaris Centre (Galeria Handlowa) in Opole for €52 mln. Five months later the investment manager purchased Karolinka Shopping Centre in Opole and Pogoria Shopping Centre in Dabrowa Gornicza from Blackrock for almost €221 mln. In December 2015 Rockcastle acquired Platan shopping centre in the Silesian city of Zabrze in southern Poland from Germany's Triuva for just under €52 mln.
Earlier this year, Rockcastle expanded into the neighbouring Czech Republic by purchasing Forum Liberec, a regional shopping centre in North Bohemia, from UK retailer Tesco for around €80 mln.