Czech Property Investment (CPI) Group’s busy acquisition spree is continuing right to the very end of 2010 with its Dec. 23 purchase of two Tesco hypermarkets in the Slovak towns of Trebišov and Čadca. The purchase adds to the company’s portfolio of seven Hypernova hypermarkets in Slovakia and a Czech retail portfolio of 14 properties.
CPI Group bought the properties from Slovak shopping center developer Istrofinal for Kč 450 million. The Čadca hypermarket comprises 5,700 sqm of sales area, additional retail units and parking for more than 200 cars. The Trebišov site includes a 5,200 sqm hypermarket, additional retail and underground parking for 270 cars.
“The retail segment has shown itself to be comparatively stable and impervious to economic fluctuations,” said CPI Group general director Zdeněk Havelka in a press release announcing the deal. Two days earlier, the Czech developer closed the purchase of two office buildings from Finep in the developer’s City West office park project in Prague 5 for Kč 1.8 billion — the largest transaction on the Czech market in 2010.
“We are taking the same opportunity to grow our portfolio in Slovakia as we have in the Czech Republic, acquiring interesting projects at good prices,” Havelka said. Earlier in 2010, CPI Group bought a number of regional retail properties with Penny Market and InterSpar the main tenants.