NEWS

A new group is currently established in Slovakia with an intention to reign in the Slovak real estate market. The group includes HB Reavis Group, the leader in the domestic real estate business, and Ipec Group, the most significant developer of industrial projects in the country. Ivan Valent, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of HB Reavis Group, comments the agreement with IPEC: "Together, we are able to create a strong and integrated group the importance of which will exceed the borders of Slovakia."

The dominating position in the Slovak market does not, however, represent the only positive of this transaction. Ivan Čarnogurský, the General Director of the IPEC Group, explains: “We mainly plan to use the synergy for strengthening our position in the Central and East European region”. The strategic partnership will ensure higher capital strength and guarantee better position of the group in negotiations.

Both companies are already active in the region. Last year, HB Reavis Group opened its branch in the Czech Republic, which is already building Aupark shopping centers in Brno and Hradec Králové. Ipec also managed to enter the Eastern markets, harvesting success after success in Ukraine and Bulgaria and particularly in Romania, where it completed almost ten industrial projects.

It was the experience and position of Ipec in the area of industrial development that inspired HB Reavis Group for joint cooperation. It will begin with the contribution of the majority of HB Reavis industrial projects into the IPEC structures. HB Reavis will in return gain control over 50 % of the IPEC Group assets. I. Valent assumes: "The formation of a joint team designed for industrial and logistic projects will allow us to take advantage of the experience and potential of both companies.”

Ipec Group is operating in the market for more than ten years, during which time it covered projects with the total lease area of 680 thousand square meters. It mainly specializes in the development of industrial and logistic areas, but also in the development of residential and administrative areas.

HB Reavis Group was established in 1993. This year, it will complete its tenth commercial project – logistic centre in Svätý Jur nearby Bratislava. The most important constructions implemented by HB Reavis Group include the Aupark shopping center, Apollo Business Center I and CBC I-II, all of them in the Capital of Slovakia. The multifunctional Twin City complex and the Apollo Business Center II, as the largest office complex in the Central and Eastern Europe, dominate in the investment plan of the group, which reaches one and half billion EUR only in the Slovak and Czech Republic.