P3 secures landmark €380m Czech loan

Point Park Properties (P3) has sealed a €380m financing for its purchase of a 627,000 sq m logistics portfolio in Czech Republic in a new benchmark deal for the cycle in Eastern Europe.

A club of three Czech banks fought off competition from German rivals to secure the mandate which is one of the largest and most competitively priced deals in the region since the downturn. An increasing number of  investors have been looking at assets in Eastern Europe as a way of enhancing their returns.

The five-year loan is understood to have been priced below 200 basis points at a loan-to-value of 72.7%.

Československá Obchodní Banka (CSOB), which is owned by Belgian bank KBC; Komerční Banka (KB) and Česká Spořitelna, a subsidiary of Austria’s Erste Bank, jointly provided the facility that has been used to finance P3’s €523m “Project Bora Bora” buy from Tristan Capital Partners and VGP. CSOB and KB acted as co-ordinating mandated lead arrangers and CSOB is also facility and security agent.

The portfolio consists of 11 logistics parks in locations including Prague, Plzen, Liberec, Hradec Kralove and Olomoucthat and includes land with the potential to develop a further 125,000 sq m of space. The largest asset is the Horní Počernice logistics park in Prague.

German banks have generally been at the forefront of lending deals in the region in recent times. In October last year Deutsche Pfandbriefbank and Helaba provided a €188m facility to a joint venture between Segro and PSP to finance the transfer of Czech and Polish assets from Segro’s portfolio into the joint venture.

Tristan Capital and VGP’s sale on behalf of funds CCP3 and EPISO is the fourth largest logistics transaction in Europe in the last two and half years and Tristan’s biggest sale to date. The firm’s Rui Tereso, head of portfolio & asset management, said: “This exit follows closely on the heels of a €472m sale we did in the same sector of assets in Germany, Poland and France to Segro a few months ago. It means Tristan has sold over €1bn of logistics assets in 2014 alone”.

CPP3 raised €420m by February 2012; EPISO raised €800m of equity by May 2008.