MAS acquires Atrium mall in Arad, Romania

10th December 2018 By: Tasneem Bulbulia - Senior Contributing Editor Online

MAS acquires Atrium mall in Arad, Romania

The Atrium shopping centre

MAS has, through a subsidiary of PKM Investments, acquired the Atrium shopping centre in Arad, Romania, from Cosmovia Holdings.

The acquisition forms part of the company’s acquisition pipeline in central and eastern Europe (CEE) and complements MAS’s income-generating portfolio of assets in the region.

The acquisition was structured as a purchase of the entire share capital of the asset-owning company, Mastweight – a wholly owned subsidiary of Cosmovia.

The transaction value attributed to Atrium was €40.5-million.

The purchase price for the share of the transfer was €28.1-million, after deductions for bank debt and working capital, and was funded from resources currently available on MAS’s balance sheet.

Atrium has a current passing rent of €4.3-million a year.

In the past year, the mall’s turnover has grown by 8.6% and its footfall by 3.5% to 5.2-million visitors.

The current vacancy rate is 2.3% and its overall weighted average unexpired lease term 2.8 years.

Atrium’s net operating income for the year to end December 31 is estimated at €3.5-million.

The acquisition has been undertaken in terms of MAS’s long-term co-investment agreement with Prime Kapital.

MAS’s effective economic interest in the acquisition is the equivalent of an 80% direct participation in the performance of Atrium and a 20% participation at the weighted average cost of external funding achieved by the joint venture with Prime Kapital.

Prime Kapital will manage this acquisition under the co-investment agreement.

The Atrium mall has a fashion and international focus, with about 28 600 m2 gross lettable area over three floors; anchored by tenants including Carrefox, Inditex, H&M, New Yorker, Waikiki, Hervis, Deichmann, Media Galaxy, Pepco, CC and Cinema City.

MAS plans to improve the quality of the retail offering and customer experience through improved asset management and the introduction of new entertainment and leisure operators to drive further footfall growth.

Reconfiguration of some parts of the mall will be considered in the medium term to enhance its configuration and increase dwell time.