Delta Real Estate and Atterbury Europe advised by JLL on recent transactions for Delta and USCE shopping centres

At the end of 2015 JLL advised the South African fund Atterbury on their one-third stake purchase of MPC Holdings which holds the Usce Shopping Center within its portfolio.

- We first met Atterbury in a neighbouring country and convinced them to come to Serbia to see the market and the opportunities it presented. As a retail developer we felt their plans for European expansion fitted perfectly with the lack of retail supply in Serbia, and clearly their join up with MPC to go forward and develop together is proof of this appetite - Andrew Peirson, Managing Director at JLL commented.

- Serbia is competing with markets such as Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania and now even Hungary when it comes to attracting real estate investors. It is generally accepted that Serbia by far has more potential going forward than its competitors but potential exists simply because investment has, for one reason or another, been held back for years - Pierson added.

As has been well documented recently, another South African investor, this time a JV between Hyprop and Homestead, recently purchased the Delta City Shopping Centers in both Belgrade and Podgorica for a total of €202.7 million. JLL acted for Delta Real Estate on the transaction as exclusive sales agent.

(Delta City Shopping Center in Belgrade)

- Again we first came across the purchaser when they were looking elsewhere in Central & Eastern Europe, this time in Poland, and convinced them to visit Serbia and Montenegro and see the quality of the assets in both markets - Peirson underlined.

Uros Grujic, Head of Capital Markets - SEE at JLL, commented that the Delta City transaction was the largest single asset deal in that region for the past 5 years.

Grujic pointed out that the current issue was the lack of assets for investors to purchase and the need for more development.

- This is again where these new investors can help. The South African fund NEPI has been the largest investor in neighbouring Romania for years, but they develop as well as purchase existing assets. What we need to see now is this new investor group also looking at the potential of Serbia as a place to develop and not only buy income producing assets. We need to see more developers enter the market and reduce the reliance on only a handful of companies, as has been the case over the past 10 years - he said and added that international real estate advisors, of which JLL was the largest in Serbia and in the SEE region in general, can provide huge added value to the real estate market and economy as a whole by helping to attract new investors the market desperately needed.

- We need to keep the momentum - Grujic said and added that the future certainly looked brighter than 12 months earlier and real estate investors were now taking note of what Serbia can offer.