NEPI Rockcastle, the biggest mall owner in Romania, announced that its Romanian tenants' revenues posted the second-steepest decline in the third quarter of the year among the countries where the South African investor operates.

The revenues of NEPI's tenants in Romania contracted by 16.8% yoy in the third quarter compared to an average of 11% for its global tenants.

"The recovery is stronger in secondary cities and smaller shopping centers, while central assets in large cities, which are more reliant on office workers, improved at a slower pace," NEPI Rockcastle wrote in a financial report to its shareholders.

The best sales of tenants were in the Czech Republic (-1.2% compared to Q3 2019), Serbia (-1.7%), Poland (-2.7%) and Slovakia (-3.0%). Hungary (-19.8% ), Romania (-16.8%), Bulgaria (-10.5%) and Lithuania (-9.9%) performed below average due to the company's high exposure to assets in large cities, particularly capitals.

According to the report, the entire leasable area owned in Romania by NEPI Rockcastle was operational on September 30.

Still, the subsequent increase in COVID-19 cases has led to new local restrictions starting October 10.

Thus, only 90% of the group's local gross leasable area is currently operational, which is still better than a 31% share in Poland, the group's other major market.

(Photo: Pixabay)

andrei@romania-insider.com