After Arena Centar, South Africans purchase Zagreb’s City Center One.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Saša Paparella writes on the 23rd of February, 2018, through its British firm, South Africa’s Hyprop has taken over a 90 percent stake in the company that manages the centers, however, the one in Split will remain left alone for the time being. The work is worth 154 million euro.
The South African Hyprop company has, through Hystead Limited which is headquartered in the United Kingdom, acquired a 90 percent stake in the popular Zagreb City Center One East and City Center One West shopping complexes.
The transaction amounts to a huge 154.4 million euro, according to Hyprop’s announcement at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. So far, there has been no mention of any interest in the third complex in that chain, City Center One in Split.
A turnover of 480 million euro
Management remains at CC Real d.o.o. where it has been confirmed that these three shopping centers are continuing to operate under the same brand. An impressive 21 million visitors walked through their doors last year, with a massive turnover of more than 480 million euro. After the completion of the transaction, Hystead will have six shopping centers in five countries, worth more than 740 million euro.
The other four centers are Delta City Podgorica (Montenegro), Delta City in Belgrade (Serbia), Skopje City Mall (Macedonia), and The Mall in Sofia (Bulgaria). So, in a short period of time, the South African company is entering Croatia’s shopping centers for the second time.
At the end of 2016, Zagreb Arena Center’s new owner became New Europe Property Investments (NEPI), a real estate fund, owned by several South African companies, and they paid 237.5 million euro. Many have asked why is there such sudden interest by foreign funds, especially by South Africans, when it comes to investing in Croatia. The answer seems to be that because of the country’s bad economic situation, Croatia had been outside of the investor’s focus for a long time.
Since opportunities have improved in general, it has become more interesting yet, because higher yields are offered here than in the Czech Republic, Poland or Hungary, and Croatia is perceived as being more risky for investment.
