25.11.2024

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.”