Selih & Partners Slovenia has advised food retail chain Mercator on its sale of ten shopping centers in Slovenia to Supernova Invest GmbH. Wolf Theiss advised Supernova on the acquisition of the shopping centers, which offer around 100,000 square meters of rentable area.
Signing of the transaction took place on October 12, 2018, and thedeal value amounts to EUR 116.6 million. According to the contract Supernova will acquire the Ajdovscina, Celje, Jesenice, Koper I, Kranj Primskovo, Kranj Savski otok, Ljubljana Siska, Postojna, Novo Mesto, and Slovenj Gradec shopping centers and invest in their renovation. Mercator will rent parts of the centers where it performs its core activity. The contract provides Mercator with a rental agreement for a period of 15 years, with the possibility of extending the agreement for another 15 years under the same conditions.
According to Wolf Theiss, Mercator, with a market share of more than 30%, is the biggest food retailer in Slovenia. With the proceeds from this sale, the Mercator Group intends to reduce the group's debt and enable its long-term development.
Supernova, which is headquartered in Graz and maintains offices in Vienna, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Bratislava, and Belgrade, has been focusing on the development of and investment in real estate and its current portfolio exceeds EUR 1 billion in assets.
Selih & Partners' team was led by Partner Blaz Ogorevc.
The Wolf Theiss team was led by Partner Markus Bruckmuller and involved Ljubljana-based Partner Klara Miletic, Senior Associate Ziga Dolhar, and Associates Petra Jermol, Neja Nastran, Tjasa Lahovnik, and Larisa Primozic.
