Business
Plaza completes sale of Dream Island project
Plaza completes sale of Dream Island project.
About this update from Plaza Centers N.v.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 8664R Plaza Centers N.V. 31 October 2013 \n \n\n31 October 2013 \n \nPlaza Centers N.V.\n \nPLAZA CENTERS' SUBSIDIARY COMPLETES SALE OF DREAM ISLAND PROJECT IN HUNGARY \n \nPlaza Centers N.V. (\"Plaza\" or the \"Company\"), a leading emerging markets property developer, today announces that the Consortium of shareholders of Dream Island, in which it holds a 43.5% stake, has completed the sale of its Dream Island project land holding to the Hungarian State for circa €15 million. \n \nThe Consortium comprises an 87% holding interest of the 50:50 joint venture partnership between Plaza and MKB Bank (a leading Hungarian commercial bank which is a subsidiary of the German Bayerische Landesbank), a company controlled by the managing director of the consortium (10% interest) and a further 3% owned by other minority shareholders.\n \nThe proceeds of the transaction will be used by the Consortium to repay a proportion of the securitised related bank debt held against the asset. As a result of a previous non-cash, market driven write-down, the asset is currently held on Plaza's balance sheet at the value of the loan, which is non-recourse, therefore no accounting loss is expected to be incurred.\n \nRan Shtarkman, President and CEO of Plaza Centers N.V., said: \n\"The Dream Island project, which remains in the planning stages, no longer offers us a viable medium term opportunity to produce strong levels of income and deliver value enhancement for our shareholders, especially in the context of an ongoing lack of readily available development finance for such large scale projects. However we believe in the long term underlying fundamentals of the Hungarian economy and will continue to actively manage our assets in the country whilst seeking additional business opportunities.\n \n\"This transaction is also in line with our strategy to deleverage and to dispose of non-core assets and to focus on the core yielding assets across our portfolio. As such, we will continue to pursue a conservative approach to our business, de-risking our development programme whilst effectively managing both our finances and investment assets to maximise value.\"\n \nFor further details, please contact:\n \nPlaza\nRan Shtarkman, President and CEO &nbs...