Romanian Unirea Shopping Center seeks EUR 70 million loan, wants to buy stake in Astra Asigurari

Unirea Shopping Center, the Romanian company that owns the Unirea shopping mall located downtown Bucharest, and a shopping mall under the same brand in Brasov, called on its shareholders to approve a EUR 70 million loan from a local bank. The company needs the money to finance its investment program, according to a shareholder’s meeting notice that the company published on its website. The company also wants to buy a stake in the insurance company Astra Asigurari for which it will pay no more than EUR 16 million, according to the same document. The main shareholder of Unirea Shopping Center, with 74 percent of its shares, is the Nova Group Investments Romania, a firm which is controlled by Romanian businessman Dan Adamescu. Adamescu also controls Astra Asigurari, the largest insurance company in Romania, which was put under special administration by the Romanian Financial Supervision Authority (ASF) in February this year. ASF stated that Astra didn’t have enough capital and suspended the voting rights of its shareholders, naming KPMG as special administrator. According to ASF, Astra needs to be recapitalized and with about EUR 110 million in the next 12 months. Unirea Shopping Center had revenues of RON 75 million (EUR 17 million) in 2013, 9 percent lower than in 2012, and a net income of RON 2.8 million (EUR 0.64 million), 18 percent smaller. The shopping center in Bucharest, which was built during the communist period, is one of the landmarks of the city. Nowdays, some of its main tenants are Spanish group Inditex, with all of its important brands (Zara, Bershka, Stradivarius, Pull&Bear), Swedish fashion retailer H&M, and German fashion retailer New Yorker. Dan Adamescu, who is one of the richest people in Romania, also owns the office building IBC Modern, which hosts the headquarters of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, and the five star hotel Intercontinental, another landmark of the Romanian capital. Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com