Nepi seals e165m Slovakian deal

NEW EUROPE Property Investments (Nepi) has concluded an agreement to acquire the 34 000m2 Aupark Kosice Mall, 12 800m2 Aupark Kosice Tower and Malinovsky Barracks – a 4.1 hectare site located in the centre of Kosice in Slovakia – from the HB Reavis Group for e165 million (R2.3 billion). Nepi, which is listed on the JSE, the London Stock Exchange’s junior AIM exchange and the Bucharest Stock Exchange, said the Aupark Kosice Mall was located in the historic city centre of Kosice, the second-largest city in Slovakia, and the catchment area included about 480 000 residents within a 45-minute drive. The Aupark Kosice Tower was the office of international firms such as GTS Slovakia, Holcim, IBM and PwC, the company said. It would assume bank debt of e83m as part of the transaction, with the net amount of e82m, adjusted for working capital, settled from its existing cash resources. The completion of the transaction is subject to obtaining relevant approvals from the anti-monopoly office of the Slovak Republic. – Roy Cokayne