Argo Real Estate Oportunities Fund (AREOF) became in the crises period the market leader in Romania, surpassing the “king of malls” Iulian Dascalu, through the consolidation of the assets controlled by the founder of the company - Andreas Rialas – former vice-president of Deutsche Bank.

The leader position comes with the advantage of a portfolio of 350 tenants, offering flexibility, but also with the disadvantage of approx. EUR 259 million debts, namely 80% of the four assets value, the company owns in Romania.

Graham Kilbane, COO Argo, admits that it is difficult to generate anticipated revenues, but also says that he succeeded to get over the critical period of 2009 and to honour the payments towards the 12 banks he is working with, according to Capital.ro.

 

As there are no new scheduled acquisitions on medium term, the fund is selling a plot of 8 ha, part of the 35 ha where Era Shopping Park Iasi is developed. The company received an offer for renting 6,000 sq m from BMW, which intends to develop a showroom, but the company is also in negotiations with IKEA. (sursa: dailybusiness.ro)