Billionaire Tomáš Krsko's BHM investment group has bought out its partner in the Log Center Maribor logistics park, giving it complete control of the park.
"We had a 75 percent stake in Log Center Maribor before the transaction, and we bought a quarter stake from the Austrian development company Go Asset Development," says partner and managing director for commercial Real Estate BHM group Jan Chaloupka.
He did not specify the purchase price for the stake, but it will definitely not be low. "Log Center Maribor is a modern, fully occupied industrial park in a strategic location, which allows us to consider a premium level of rents and the associated required rate of return on investment. Based on these factors, the price of a quarter stake can be estimated at approximately 10 million euros (roughly 250 million crowns)," adds Tomas Szilagyi, investment analyst at the consulting company Colliers.
The park was built by the BHM group together with Go Asset Development. With this transaction, the two companies are now parting ways on the project. “We built Log Center Maribor together with the Austrian development company Go Asset Development, which, unlike our company, did not intend to own these assets in the long term,” says Chalupka, explaining the reason for the separation.
The logistics park offers 30,000 square meters of logistics and industrial space for storage and production. The Krsk Group has big plans for it. Over the next two years, it wants to launch a second development phase, which should expand the area by another twenty thousand square meters to a total of fifty thousand.
In Sežana, Slovenia, it will then begin building a new logistics center of fifty thousand square meters.
“One of the key reasons is that Slovenia has a favorable geographical location and, thanks to the port of Koper, also connections to Asian markets. Another factor is the fact that there have been few logistics centers in Slovenia for a long time,” comments Chalupka on the interest in the Slovenian market. According to him, BHM is the development leader in this segment in Slovenia. The Krsk Group does not plan to invest in other real estate sectors, such as offices, hotels or apartments.
Logistics real estate is generally a sought-after asset, the prices of which have skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic. “Given the lack of suitable opportunities in the Czech Republic, more and more domestic investors are focusing on foreign markets. An example is Poland, where a wide range of Czech investment funds are active,” describes Szilagyi and continues: “In this context, Slovenian logistics parks represent an attractive opportunity due to their strategic location on major European transport routes, stable rental yields and attractive rates of return, especially compared to the Czech Republic or Western markets.”
In the field of logistics, BHM also wants to expand in other countries. “BHM group owns and manages a total of thirteen halls in Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia with an area of almost 400,000 square meters. We currently have development plans for another 500,000 square meters,” Chalupa calculates, adding that “the long-term plan for the next five years is to reach an area of one million square meters.
Krsko’s group will build and buy logistics parks depending on which option is more advantageous. “At the same time, we are ready to invest financial resources in the order of billions of crowns in this process,” Chalupa adds.
BHM group invests in a wide range of areas from renewable energy sources, especially wind farms, to logistics parks and healthcare. The largest investments are directed towards real estate and energy.
In recent months, Krsek's group has focused on investments in the healthcare sector, having taken over the German company Medifa, which it bought in bankruptcy. The company manufactures operating tables and operating room technology. At the end of last year, it also bought a majority stake in the British company Brandon Medical, which produces, for example, lights for operating rooms and provides digital solutions for hospitals.
More than seven years ago, Krsek and his partners sold Pilsen-based Škoda Transportation to the country's leading investment company, the PPF Group. During the sale of the company, its main shareholders, Krsek, Michal Korecký, Marek Čmejla and Jiří Diviš, had a falling out. The sparks were mainly between Krsek and Korecký.
