NEPI : New European Property raising 1.1bn Rand of new equity
New European Property is raising 1.1bn South African Rand (about €80m) of new equity to help fund two recent acquisitions. The equity issue is being done as part of a vendor consideration placing (a type of deal where the person selling the asset is given shares in the company buying the asset and those shares are then placed with other buyers so the seller ends up with cash).
The assets being acquired are the Aurora Shopping Mall and Alba Iulia Strip Mall in Romania; and the Kragujevac Plaza Shopping Mall in Serbia.
Aurora Shopping Mall has 17,900 sm of gross letting area and is located in Buzau, the capital of Buzau county, Romania, which has approximately 116,000 inhabitants. Alba Iulia Strip Mall is a strip mall with 3,200 sqm gross letting space. Alba Iulia is the capital of Alba county, Romania, which has approximately 64,000 inhabitants. NEPI is paying €10m for the two of them.
Kragujevac Plaza is a shopping mall with 22,000 sqm of gross letting area and is located in Kragujevac, the capital of Sumadija, Serbia. New European Property is paying €38.6m for it. Kragujevac is Serbia’s fourth largest city, with approximately 150,000 inhabitants and a major automobile factory. They say the mall, which opened in 2012, enjoys a prime location and is close to several residential neighbourhoods and that it is the only modern Serbian mall outside Belgrade. There are approximately 280,000 inhabitants within a 45-minute drive. The mall is almost fully let and current major tenants include strong brands such as: C&A, Cineplexx, Deichmann, Idea and New Yorker.
UPDATE – in the end NEPI upped the size of the issue to 1.4bn rand – in response to demand