DLA Piper has advised Erste Group Bank AG, Erste Bank a.d. Novi Sad, and UniCredit Bank Serbia a.d. on the €225 million refinancing of a major retail real estate portfolio in Belgrade. The portfolio is jointly owned by Atterbury, a South African investor group, and MPC Properties, one of Serbia’s leading real estate developers.
The transaction covers three landmark shopping centres in the Serbian capital — Ušće, BEO, and Mercator — and represents the largest real estate refinancing deal ever completed in Serbia.
The financing marks the first cross-collateralised portfolio transaction involving assets jointly managed by Atterbury Europe and MPC Properties. Completed under favourable market conditions, the deal highlights continued investor confidence in the CEE and SEE property markets while enabling an optimised capital structure for the Serbian SPVs and their retail assets.
The DLA Piper team was led by Dr. Marcell M. Németh, LL.M., Partner and Head of the Finance practice at DLA Piper Austria, and included Finance partners Mei Mei Wong (London), Lex Oosterling (Amsterdam) and Michael Graham (Tax partner, London), Stefanie Menz (Finance legal director, Amsterdam), senior associates Amy Franks (Finance, Leeds), Lukas Krenn (Tax, Vienna) and Jason Carli (Tax, Vienna) and associates Reece Robinson (Finance, Leeds), Cai Cherry (Litigation & Regulatory, London).
Local advice was provided by partners Jelisaveta Stanišić and Stojan Semiz as well as senior associate Tijana Trivunović (all Banking and Finance practice at ZSP Advokati).
Dr. Marcell M. Németh says: “This landmark deal highlights our ability to successfully support complex cross-border financings. Thanks to the close and seamless collaboration of our teams across multiple jurisdictions, we were able to deliver first-class advice and efficiently support the refinancing of this significant portfolio.”
DLA Piper’s International Finance practice has advised on several refinancings for the real estate sector, including:
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Advising Aareal Bank on:
The EUR567 million refinancing of seven hotels in Europe including the Hilton Schiphol Airport, Renaissance La Défense Paris and Conrad Dublin;
The provision of financing worth EUR285 million to Star Capital Finance for the purchase of a portfolio of six shopping centres in Poland; and
A GBP275 million loan facility against three Hilton Hotels
- Supporting a syndicate of financial institutions coordinated by BBVA, CaixaBank and Banco de Sabadell on the granting of EUR400 million of financing to Minor Hotels Europe & Americas, S.A.
- Assisting Carlyle on the GBP155 million refinancing of its portfolio of flexible office buildings around central London. The transaction consisted of a GBP120 million senior facility from Société Générale and a GBP35 million mezzanine facility from Deva Capital.
