London: Icona Capital (‘Icona’) is pleased to announce today that it has bought a substantial 15.7% stake in Globe Trade Center S.A. (‘GTC’), a leading central European real estate investor and developer, for a global transaction value of €140m. The shares have been purchased from GTC Dutch Holding B.V., a vehicle ultimately controlled by Optima Investments Ltd. (‘Optima’).
GTC which is listed and headquartered in Warsaw has a primary focus on Poland and Hungary yet also has sites across Central and South-Eastern Europe. Its investments are made up of 732,100sqm of both office and retail space in 43 revenue generating prime commercial buildings, with three properties under construction and a substantial development land bank. GTC has a gross asset value of €2.2bn and in the year to December 2020 it had €160m of revenue from operations and an EBITDA of €112m.
Icona, which has over €2.5bn of gross assets under management, will take a seat on GTC’s Supervisory Board.
The Icona board is chaired by Max-Hervé George and also comprises Edward Spencer Churchill, a director of Sun Capital; Francois Reyl, CEO of Swiss financial group Reyl Intesa San Paolo and Marius L. Vizer, the Austrian businessman and investor.
Speaking about the acquisition of GTC’s stake, Max-Hervé George said: ‘We are looking forward to developing our relationship further with GTC over the coming years and are delighted that in one step Icona has been able to expand its geographical exposure to some of the best commercial sites across central Europe.’
Zoltán Fekete, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of GTC said: ‘We are pleased to welcome on board an international group of investors that brings a new angle to our investment strategy, through which we intend to explore opportunities in markets outside Central and Eastern Europe.’
About Icona Capital:
Icona Capital Group was established by Max-Hervé George and has its headquarters in London W1 with offices in Geneva and Luxembourg. With the inclusion of the GTC stake, Max-Hervé George and Icona now have in excess of €2.5bn of gross value assets in Switzerland, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Ireland, the UK, Poland, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Austria and the USA.
About the GTC Group:
The GTC Group is an experienced, established, and fully integrated, real estate company operating in the CEE and SEE region with a primary focus on Poland and Hungary and capital cities in the CEE and SEE region including Bucharest, Belgrade, Zagreb and Sofia, where it directly manages, acquires and develops primarily high-quality office and retail real estate assets in prime locations. The Company is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and inward listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The GTC Group operates a fully-integrated asset management platform and is represented by local teams in each of its core markets.
As of 30 September 2021, the book value of the Group’s real estate portfolio, excluding assets held for sale which were sold in January 2022, was €2.2bn.
