Lone Star with controlling interest in GTC

Private equity fund Lone Star has increased its stake in Polish real estate developer GTC to 55.2 percent in a tender offer, Reuters informed on Monday. Till now, the firm has had a 32.5 percent stake in the developer. It is aiming to enlarge its holding to 66 percent. It is now offering a price of PLN 5.5 per share until June 3  (till May 22 it was PLN 6.1 ), which is below GTC's current market price of PLN 6.05, the agency pointed out. "We have surpassed the minimum level that we wanted to achieve," Alexander Hesse, co-head of real estate investments at Lone Star Europe as well as head of the GTC's supervisory board, said in a statement. Among other GTC shareholders are local pension funds owned by Poland's PZU, Dutch ING Groep, Britain's Aviva and Polish lender BZ WBK.