Revetas Capital, a real estate manager specialized in distressed assets, is negotiating the takeover of Vitantis Shopping Center in Bucharest from Equest Balkan Properties investment fund, according to Mediafax newswire. The negotiations are in the final stages, Equest representatives told Mediafax.

The shopping center, which is situated next to the Vitan auto market in southeastern Bucharest, is facing financial difficulties as it has to reimburse debt worth EUR 44 million, the largest part of which are two loans from UniCredit Tiriac Bank. The firm which owns the shopping center, Vitantis SRL, had EUR 2.7 million losses in 2012, while its turnover was EUR 3.77 million, according to data from the Romanian Finance Ministry.

The buyer, Revetas Capital, which is active in Central and Easter Europe, manages an investment vehicle, Revetas Capital Recovery Fund I L.P., which raised EUR 40 million in 2013. Currently, the company seeks to get EUR 200 million for its second fund, which will be targeting distressed, underperforming and undervalued real estate investments primarily in CEE.

Revetas Capital will take over the debt for Vitantis Shopping Center, which it will try to restructure, and it will also work on repositioning it on the market. The shopping center has a total of 36,000 square meters rentable area and some of its largest tenants are hypermarket chain Carrefour, furniture retailer Casa Rusu, do-it-yourself store Praktiker and electronics retailer Domo. According to the latest data, the shopping center is about 70 percent occupied, Mediafax writes.

Equest bought the project in late 2006 for about EUR 31.6 million and invested another EUR 30 million to further develop it. Equest also recently sold the Moldova Mall shopping center in Iasi to Romanian businessman Gheorghe Iaciu.

editor@romania-insider.com