Real estate fund NEPI gets EUR 20 mln refinancing from Garanti Bank for shopping mall in Romania

South – African investment fund New Europe Property Investments (NEPI) recently took a EUR 20 million loan from Garanti Bank to partially refinance its investment in Shopping City Galati in South – East Romania. The financing covers five years and was granted in February this year, the bank has announced. Shopping City Galati was opened in November 2013, six months after the building permits were issued. The shopping center has a gross leasable area of 27,206 sqm and is fully leased. Tenants include Altex, B&B Collection, Benvenuti, C&A, CCC, Carrefour, Deichmann, dm, Domo, Flanco, H&M, KFC, Intersport, Killtec, Leonardo, New Yorker, Puma and Sensiblu. NEPI already owns additional land for a future expansion of the project. NEPI's most recent acquisition in Romania was that of City Park Mall in the Romanian seaside city of Constanta for EUR 81 million. The seller was developer Neocity Group. In 2013, NEPI bought The Lakeview office building in Bucharest, for some EUR 61.7 million. In recent years, the fund has become the most active, and the largest buyer of real estate properties in Romania. editor@romania-insider.com