Aerium refinances €181m CEE portfolio

The European fund manager has refinanced properties in Poland, Slovakia, Turkey, and the Czech Republic leased to or anchored by supermarket giants Tesco and Carrefour

Aerium Group, the European property fund manager, has refinanced a group of 13 properties for €181 million with Germany’s Deutsche Pfandbriefbank.

The assets are located in Poland, Slovakia, Turkey, and the Czech Republic and are supermarkets let to or anchored by European supermarket giants, Tesco and Carrefour totaling around 247,000 square metres of commercial space.

The portfolio also includes six properties in Turkey, which Aerium refinanced with Turkey’s largest merchant bank, Akbank, last year.

Aerium acquired the properties as part of a sale and leaseback with Carrefour in 2005 for over €600 million via Aerium’s fund, Bainbridge Properties.

Franck Ruimy, chief executive officer at Aerium called it the one of the largest retail-based asset refinancings of 2010. “This was a complex transaction because of it size and the number of jurisdictions it encompassed but the underlying assets comprise very high quality, well let properties which continue to benefit from strong appetite and liquidity,” he said.

Harin Thaker, head of real estate finance international at pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, said Central and Eastern Europe formed part of the bank’s new lending strategy.