Investment fund close to purchasing Radisson Hotel in Bucharest

Revetas Capital, an investment fund founded and managed by Eric Assimakopoulos, is close to acquiring the Radisson Blu hotel in Bucharest for EUR 177.5 million, according to market sources cited by Ziarul Financiar. This would be the largest transaction in the local real estate market in recent years and the largest hotel sale in Romania. The fund previously acquired the Vitantis Shopping Center located near the Vitan car trade fair at the end of 2013. The deal was estimated at about EUR 26 million, but it included debts of EUR 20 million. Revetas has recently taken over the Papa office project in Prague, with a 40,000 sqm rentable area. In Romania, Revetas' investment manager is Radu Boitan, who has worked with Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL). Eric Assimakopoulos is a US national real estate broker who signed EUR 1 billion deals before creating Revetas. Israeli group Elbit Imaging, which owns the five-star Radisson Blu Hotel in the capital, announced at the end of August on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange that it has signed an agreement to sell the Bucharest hotel. editor@romania-insider.com