Raiffeisen postpones €100 mln loan for Primavera Development

“The credit has not been frozen, but we now have a different attitude regarding the real estate market. On a volatile market, the guarantees we receive from developers are unpredictable. We can finance large objectives only in controllable financial conditions. Primavera provided acceptable own sources, but until the market rebounds, the file is on stand-by,” Marinel Burduja, First Vice President of Raiffeisen Bank, told Business Standard. Burduja said that several applications that are currently being evaluated, are also on stand-by, and the bank is unable to lend large amounts. Moreover, syndication is not an option, considering that other lenders are in the same situation. “I foresee no major changes in 2009,” the bank official said. “We are presently negotiating with several banks to obtain the loan needed for the development of the Sibiu mall. The total value of the investment is some €100 million,” said Eelko Korteweg, Primavera Development Project Manager. The company official added that 30 percent of the mall is already pre-rented. The enterprise also developed the S-Park building, sold for €104.5 mil to the Austrian Immoeast fund in 2007, a major transaction at the time.