Trio of banks provide €164m for Polish retail portfolio

Pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank (pbb), Helaba and ING Real Estate Finance have provided a €163.6 million loan to refinance three shopping centres in Poland.

Pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank (pbb), Helaba and ING Real Estate Finance have provided a €163.6 million loan to refinance three shopping centres in Poland.

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Karolinka shopping centre

The three banks provided the joint underwrite to Rockcastle Global Real Estate Company, in a deal which closed earlier this month. Rockcastle is listed in Johannesburg and Mauritius and invests in real estate globally. The loan refinances the firm’s Karolinka, Pogoria and Platan shopping centres.

The three banks provided equal proportions of the financing, while pbb acted as facility and security agent in the transaction.

The portfolio is located in Poland’s Silesian region. Each centre is anchored by an Auchan hypermarket and the tenants include numerous international fashion brands.

Karolinka Shopping Centre in Opole has a total lettable area of around 70,000 square metres. Pogoria Shopping Centre is located in Dabrowa Gornicza and totals around 36,000 square metres. Both assets were built in 2007.

Platan Shopping Centre is located in the town centre of Zabrze. It opened in 2003 and provides more than 25,000 square metres of lettable area.

“This transaction further supports Rockcastle’s strategy of becoming a dominant retail investor in CEE. It has provided Rockcastle with not only the opportunity to further strengthen its strategic relationship with ING but also cultivate new partnerships with pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank and Helaba,” said Nick Matulovich, chief financial officer at Rockcastle.

“Over the past two years, Rockcastle has become one of the most active and important players on the Polish real estate market,” added Włodek Skonieczny, head of real estate finance Poland at ING Bank.