Acquisition

4 Jun 2007 07:02

Fabian Romania Property Fund Ltd04 June 2007 Fabian Romania Property Fund Limited ("Fabian Romania" or the "Fund") Fabian Romania announces the purchase of a €4.9 million office building inBucharest Fabian Romania has reached agreement to purchase the Evocenter office buildingin the Pipera / Voluntari district of Bucharest for a forecast yield of 9 percent.. The Evocenter will be the Fund's fourth office building in Bucharest. The fund had initially proposed to purchase the building empty, thereby takingthe letting risk. However, during the due diligence process, the Adama Groupfrom Israel, the developer, signed a lease taking half of the available space.The building will be completed in summer 2007 to a Class A standard andcomprises 3,000m2 of net lettable area, 18 covered car parking spaces andancillary parking close by. It is arranged over seven levels, basement, groundfloor, mezzanine and four office floors. Rents that will be achieved for the building are forecast to be €12 sqm/monthfor ground, mezzanine and floors one to four, €65 sqm/month for parking and €7sqm/month for storage. Once all space is fully let, the yield is forecast to be9 per cent.. The Fund will meet the consideration of €4.9 million from its own resources.Debt drawdown is anticipated to be during the third quarter 2007 which willreduce the ongoing equity requirement to around €1 million. Commenting on the transaction, Mark Holdsworth, Managing Director of FabianCapital, the Investment Advisor to the Fund said: "We are delighted that the Fund has sealed agreement to buy this commercialoffice building. Based on our experience and given the ongoing shortage ofoffice space in Bucharest, we believe it is in the Fund's interest to agree totake the letting risk for the building in return for sealing a more attractiveprice. By having the Adama Group, as both anchor tenant and vendor, we consider we haveensured a quality product through the alignment of interests. We are confidentof letting the rest of the building out to multinational tenants in the nearfuture." Following the acquisition of 40-44 Banu Antonache in January 2006, the purchaseof the Adama building will be the second occasion the fund has taken the lettingrisk. The lead advisers on the transaction were DTZ (property agent), WSP (technicaladvisers) and Tuca Zbarcea Asociatii (legal adviser). For Comments: Fabian Romania:Mark Holdsworth +44 20 7499 9988 Nominated Adviser:Deloitte & Touche LLPJames Lewis +44 20 7936 3000 Broker:Shore Capital Stockbrokers LimitedDru Danford +44 20 7408 4090 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange