Retail group NEPI Rockcastle secured a green loan worth €73.5 million from International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of World Bank, in a bid to expand its sustainable business infrastructure in Romania. 

Real estate services platform Novaston was an exclusive support agent in the sales process of two retail properties in Serbia between two influential investors in the Balkan region: NEPI Rockcastle and BIG CEE. The binding agreement with the total consideration of the approx. €61 million euros for retail properties Kragujevac Plaza Shopping mall (with a GLA of 22,300 sqm) and Krusevac retail park (with a GLA of 8,600 sqm) was signed in June.

NEPI Rockcastle has published its condensed consolidated financial results for 2020, according to which the retail landlord’s net rental and related income was €323 million last year, 19.4% lower than in 2019.

NEPI Rockcastle enters the residential market and builds apartments near Vulcan Value Center in Bucharest, Profit.ro informs.

NEPI Rockcastle is starting the works for the extension of Promenada shopping centre in Bucharest, Ziarul Financiar informs, publishing a photo showing that the land is being prepared for construction.

NEPI Rockcastle is increasing the sustainability targets for the following decade and aims to become carbon neutral by 2030. The Group’s initiative meets the EU’s efforts to combat climate change through carbon neutrality. BuildGreen, advisor in the field of sustainable development in Central and Eastern Europe, will provide NEPI Rockcastle carbon-neutral audit and sustainability strategy, to meet the Group’s target and support the line created within the realms of the Paris Agreement.

Shopping centre owner NEPI Rockcastle achieved a collection rate of 97% of reported revenues for the first half of 2020 and 90% for the nine-month period ended 30 September 2020. The total value of COVID-19 related rent reliefs and discounts granted by NEPI Rockcastle up to 30 September amounts to €55.6 million. The company published a business update for Q3 2020.

AFI Europe Group contracted a €170 million loan from a consortium of banks consisting of Erste Bank Group, pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, and Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR) to acquire NEPI Rockcastle’s office portfolio of in Romania.

AFI Europe, the owner of among others the largest mall in Bucharest, has completed the takeover of the portfolio consisting of four office projects from NEPI Rockcastle, in the most important office transaction in Romanian history. With a value of €307 million, the transaction through which NEPI Rockcastle, advised by Colliers International, sold four office projects to AFI Europe represents a third of the real estate investment market estimated at about €1 billion in 2020. The acquisition places Romania on the map of large strategic investors and has the potential to become a catalyst for significant new transactions in the future, being an important benchmark for local market liquidity and contributing to increasing investor confidence, according to Colliers International specialists.

AFI Europe NV has concluded a new agreement with NEPI for the purchase of 4 Class A office projects in Romania, with a total GLA of 118,500 sqm. The transaction value is of €290 million and the portfolio’s takeover is scheduled to be finalised within the next four months.