TIRANA, Oct. 26 – Balfin Group, one of Albania’s biggest companies has sold its Skopje city mall in neighbouring Macedonia to UK-based Hystead Limited for €92 million only four years after building and operating one of the region’s largest shopping center.
Hystead Limited (Hystead), a UK-based company co-owned by Hyprop Investments Limited (Hyprop) and PDI Investment Holdings Limited (PDI) now owns three shopping properties in South-Eastern Europe, namely Delta City Podgorica (Montenegro), Delta City Belgrade (Serbia), both purchased earlier this year and its Skopje City Mall (Macedonia), its recent acquisition.
Offering 37,600m² of retail gross leasable area and 131 tenants including international brands, the Skopje city mall launched in 2012 is the biggest shopping center in the Macedonian capital located only 3 km from the city centre.
The sale comes as Balfin Group, which operates in the construction, trade and mining sectors, is investing €78 million in the two resorts in the Lalzit Bay, Durres, and the Palase beach in the southern Albanian Riviera.
The company has been offered to use the coastal facilities for 20 years for a symbolic 1$/m2 a month for the May 15 to Sept. 30 period each year as a strategic investor and will be offered simplified procedures to carry out the investment.
Earlier this month, the Albanian government also extended Balfin Group’s Bulqiza mine concession by another 10 years until 2040. The country’s biggest mine was acquired by Balfin in 2013 from Austria-based DCM Decometal.
The Balfin Group is run by Samir Mane, who has been named by Wealth-X intelligence provider as Albania’s first billionaire with an estimated fortune of US$1.2 billion.
