Bucharest's AFI Palace Cotroceni retailers register lower sales in the first half

The retailers in the AFI Palace Cotroceni shopping center in Bucharest registered sales of EUR 92.3 million in the first half of 2014, down 3.1% year-on-year, while revenues from rents increased by 4.2% to EUR 14.6 million, reports local Wall-street.ro. In the first six months of 2013, the shopping mall generated sales of EUR 95.4 million and revenues from rents of EUR 14 million. The shopping mall was visited by 55,000 people daily in January-June, up from 52,000 registered in the first six months of 2013. AFI Palace Cotroceni, the first project of AFI Europe in Romania, has a rentable area of over 80,000 sqm. AFI Europe also owns AFI Palace Ploiesti in Romania. AFI Properties, the parent company of AFI Europe, registered a sharp increase in profit in H1 2014 to EUR 27.5 million compared to EUR 4.3 mil in H1 2013.The increase in profit is attributed to new projects being finalized and inaugurated, such as the shopping mall AFI palace Ploiesti and the office building AFI Park 2 in Romania and a refinancing structure to Business Park Varna in Bulgaria, according to the company. The board of directors has decided to distribute dividends of EUR 16 million, the first dividend distribution since 2006. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com