EIKA Asset Management (EAM), an investment management company belonging to EIKA Group, has signed a financing agreement with Bank Pekao SA, the second largest bank in Poland. The funds received under the agreement will be used to finance logistics warehouses in Poland being built by EAM together with the Polish development company Waimea Holding..
According to the agreement signed by EAM last year with the Polish real estate development company Waimea Holding, three phases of development of logistics warehouses near Warsaw Modlin Airport and other important transport arteries in Poland are planned. The first phase of the project covers 7.54 hectares of land, 38 thousand sq. meters of leasable area. The amount of investment in the first phase reaches more than 25 million euros.
“Bank Pekao SA has shown confidence in our ongoing project. We managed to obtain a building permit, sign a fixed-price general contracting agreement and lease agreements before purchasing the plot and starting construction. Bank Pekao SA will allocate approximately EUR 15 million to finance the construction of warehouses north of Warsaw, near Modlin Airport. We will be able to repay the loan in installments, and after the construction is completed, the financing will be converted and become cheaper. We hope to cooperate with this bank in the future. We are already known and visible in the Polish market, and we have successfully implemented several tens of million-euro projects. This bank’s confidence is also increased by our partner in this project – Waimea Holding, which is one of the fastest growing industrial and commercial real estate development companies in Central and Eastern Europe,” says Paulius Stulgaitis, investment manager at the investment management company EIKA Asset Management.
According to the investment manager, there is an opportunity to increase financing when the project is fully built and the last tenants are found. “We still have the opportunity to build two additional warehouses nearby. This is the second warehouse development project near Warsaw. We see this as a more liquid and extremely attractive market segment not only for local Polish market players, but also for foreign investors. It is very important that we can offer the Polish market a product that will meet the high quality standards of the international certification system BREEAM and other requirements that are set for modern logistics. The success of this project is based on the fact that it is located in a very convenient location in Warsaw, near Modlin Airport and other important transport arteries,” notes P. Stulgaitis.
It is estimated that the entire project (three phases of this project) will cover more than 23 hectares of land, approximately 117 thousand sq. meters of leasable area will be built, and the investment amount will exceed 70 million euros. The Polish warehouse market, reaching an area of more than 32 million sq. meters, is the fifth largest in Europe and continues to expand rapidly. And in this country, decreasing construction costs allow us to offer competitive rental prices for new logistics facilities without losing the desired return on investment.
“This is our first transaction with the EIKA Real Estate Fund of the investment management company EIKA Asset Management. We are pleased to have become the financial partner of the New Modlin Project. We hope that this transaction will be the beginning of our productive and long-term cooperation. We thank you for your trust and look forward to an equally successful partnership in the future,” says Dieter Lobnig, Director of the Investment Banking and Real Estate Department at Bank Pekao SA.
Bank Pekao SA was founded in 1929 and is one of the largest financial institutions in the Central and Eastern European region and the second largest universal bank in Poland, with assets of PLN 333 billion. The bank has the second largest branch network in the country. It is a leader in corporate banking, serving every second largest Polish company. Pekao holds a significant position in the asset management, brokerage services and private banking markets. Bank Pekao is the most resilient bank in Europe, ranking first in the EBA 2023 stress test of 70 banks. Since 1998, Bank Pekao has been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and is a member of several local indices (including WIG 20 and WIG) and international indices (including MSCI EM, Stoxx Europe 600 and FTSE Developed). Pekao is one of the largest dividend-paying companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, having paid out more than PLN 20 billion to shareholders over the past 10 years.
This is already the second major EAM contract with Polish banks. In June of this year, the company managed by the investment management company EAM Fund “EIKA Real Estate Fund” in Poland signed a financing agreement with one of the largest financial groups in the world and the largest private equity bank in Poland “Santander Bank Polska”. The funds are intended to finance a logistics center under construction in the town of Sochaczew, which is located about 50 km west of Warsaw. A total of 18 million euros are planned to be invested here. Of this, about 7 million euros have already been invested by the EAM-managed fund “EIKA Real Estate Fund”.