Marfin Investment Group (MIG) announced that it has reached an agreement for its participation in the largest department store chain in Serbia, JSC Robne kuće Beograd (RKB), after an auction that was conducted today by the Serbian Privatisation Agency (SPA). An agreement has been reached with Verano Motors d.o.o Belgrade (Verano), the highest bidder in the auction with a bid price of EUR360 mln, whereby MIG will become a 66.67% shareholder in RKB.
RKB has historically been the leading department store chain in the former Yugoslavia and among the largest chains across Europe. RKB owns a significant real estate portfolio comprising assets in some of the most attractive and central locations in all major cities across Sebia and Montenegro, with a total area of approximately 232,000 sq.m. including: Â 32 department stores in Serbia (9 of which in Belgrade), 4 department stores and 1 warehouse facility in Montenegro and 1 logistics centre and 1 business centre in Belgrade
The envisaged acquisition of RKB will enable the acquirer to fully utilise the potential of the company’s real estate assets, with no constraints on their potential uses and underlying business activities, depending on the location of each asset and its refurbishment schedule. It should be noted that the bid price implies an average acquisition price of EUR1,552 per sq.m. The real estate developments can accommodate a wide range of businesses, such as retail stores for apparel, technology, telecoms and other products, super markets, quick service restaurants, bank branches and offices. To that end, MIG believes that the RKB assets have significant synergetic potential with MIG’s other investments which will seek to aggressively expand in the Serbian market.Â
The signing of the transaction is expected to take place on 5 November 2007 in Belgrade and the transaction is expected to close no earlier than 5 December 2007, subject to approval by the relevant competition authorities.
Verano Motors d.o.o. Belgrade is the leading member of the Verano Group (the ’Verano Group’), founded and owned by Radomir Živanić. The Verano Group is a holding company of 25 separate entities, across a wide range of businesses including, inter alia, automotives, food, retail, real estate development and management. Verano is among the top 2 real estate developers and managers in the Serbian market, and is already the owner of a number of shopping centres and department stores in Belgrade.
Commenting on the agreement, the Vice Chairman of MIG Andreas Vgenopoulos made the following statement: “Our investment in RKB through our partnership with Verano under such advantageous terms is the result of our strong positioning in the Southeastern European region, as well as our competitive advantage in an international environment dominated by lack of liquidity and financing constraints. MIG is set to become the largest commercial real estate owner in Serbia and this provides the potential to realise substantial synergies with all companies where MIG has full or partial control and which are already present or plan to enter in the Serbian market.â€
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