ČMN completes Churchill acquisition
Českomoravská nemovitostní (ČMN) has completed its acquisition of Churchill Square office complex above Prague’s main train station. To do so, it bought out the remaining 50% share from its Lebanese partner CFH. The two bought the building together from Penta Real Estate at the end of 2020 . It’s the latest in a long string of deals where local investors have used the lack of foreign investors in the market to snap up key real estate assets.
the deal consisted of a cash payment of 19 million euros, with ČMN assuming €24 million in debt, or 25 percent of the loan that the partners took out to make the initial purchase possible. The transaction is based on a €170 million valuation of the property. Equates to CZK 4.3 billion at current exchange rates, whereas the building was bought off a valuation of CZK 4 billion. “We are financing the acquisition through a combination of our own cash, corporate bonds, and bank loans,” ČMN’s Vice Chairman Josef Eim.
ČMN and Lebanese CFH originally shared the property equally, but ČMN bought out one-quarter of the asset a year ago. With the takeover completed, Eim says Churchill “is a strategic and long-term investment for us. We don’t have any exit plans in the short or medium term.”
