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.’