New Europe Property Investments (NEPI) fund has bought the Floreasca Business Park office complex in Bucharest at a purchase price of EUR 27.6 million, having valued the building at around EUR 100 million. This is the largest deal on the Romanian real estate market this year.

The sellers in the deal were Apollo Rom, Kanebo Investments and Grimsby Investments. Floreasca Business Park was developed by Portland Trust. The purchased investment vehicle was Ingen Europe BV, which owns local company Floreasca Business Park.

The final purchase price will be determined taking into account the net operating income of the property, the indexation of rental income in January 2011 and the financial statements of Ingen and Floreasca Business Park. “In so far as there is a difference between the final purchase price and the estimated purchase price an adjustment amount will be paid between the purchasers and the sellers,” wrote NEPI's announcement to the stock exchange investors.  The purchase price will be funded through the proceeds of the rights offer launched by NEPI on the London Stock Exchange.

The NEPI fund chose Floreasca Business Park after a valuation of the local office market, which included 12 potential acquisitions targets. It worked together with Colliers International advisory.

Floreasca Business park has a leasable area of 36,000 sqm and the weighted average rental per sqm is of EUR 17.21, according to NEPI. Floreasca Business Park hosts the headquarters of companies like Oracle, Xerox, Holcim, Colliers, Marcs and General Electric, among others.

Portland Trust, the developer of Floreasca Business Park, has also sold other office buildings in Bucharest in the past- Opera Center for EUR 24 million and Bucharest Business Park, for EUR 65 million.  Portland Trust was established in 1997 by its managing partners Robert Neale and Mark Vydra.

NEPI also owns several shopping centers in Romania, among which Iris Shopping Center, European Retail Park Braila.

editor@romania-insider.com