German banks finance Finnish mall

German banks pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank and Helaba have provided a €67.2 million loan to CBRE Global Investors’ European Shopping Centre Fund II.

The loan was written to finance the acquisition of the Skanssi shopping centre in the Finnish town of Turku, announced in May.

The five-year debt facility is a non-recourse senior loan at 50 percent loan-to-value ratio. The loan has been priced according to moderate risk parameters, Real Estate Capital understands.

Pbb and Helaba provided equal portions of the debt financing, with pbb acting as facility agent of the transaction, which closed in July.

The retail centre currently totals circa 37,000 square metres of lettable area and houses around 90 stores including a large K-Citymarket, H&M, Stadium and Clas Ohlson.

The Skanssi shopping centre is the first investment in Finland for ESCF II. Turku, which is also known under its Swedish name Åbo, is a regional capital and a business and cultural centre on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River.

“The shopping centre is an attractively located shopping destination with a green profile. It is supposed to increase its attractiveness as the Turku region grows and the Skanssi area develops,” said Norbert Müller, head of real estate finance, Continental Europe West at pbb.

“The Nordic region remains a key strategic market for pbb,” Müller added.

Helaba, for its part, has been active in the Nordic market for more than a decade. It now operates a regional branch in Stockholm.