Record sale deal in Warsaw

Closed-end real estate fund BPT Optima has finalized a deal to purchase 62,000 sqm of office space from Polish national telecom operator TP. The total value of the investment amounted to almost €168 (zł.556,70) million.

The investors hope the acquisition will bring them an over seven-percent yield. "This spectacular purchase became another milestone with respect to acquisitions for the BPT group. Owing to the scale of the transaction, BPT obtained a unique opportunity to efficiently indicate its presence in the Baltic Sea region's real estate market," said Tomasz Tromer, a partner and country director at BPT's Polish office.

The acquired properties include two office towers, on ul. Twarda and ul. Moniuszki in the city center, as well as an office building on ul. Obrzeżna in the capital's Mokotów district. TP will continue to occupy all three buildings as the deal was accompanied by a lease-back transaction.

The final sale and lease-back agreement came after over six months of negotiations. Legal services for the transaction were provided by the Sopot-based law firm of Głuchowski, Jedliński, Rodziewicz, Zwara & Partners and the Bech-Bruun law firm from Copenhagen. Nordea Bank group financed the purchase.

Established in 2005 and consisting primarily of retail and office properties, BPT Optima is a real estate fund with an investment capacity of €667 (zł.2,210) million. Its activity is dedicated to the Baltic States and Poland.

The fund is managed by the Copenhagen-based Baltic Property Trust, the largest institutional investor in commercial real estate in the Baltic Sea region, with a total investment capacity exceeding EUR1 (zł.3.3) billion.