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"Turkish property company Krea Real Estate and Pradera Europe have become joint venture partners who are seeking to raise €250 million of equity for a €500 million Turkish shopping centre fund, which is exclusively for institutional investors.
The fund will target shopping centres valued between €50 million and €80 million with the aim of building up a portfolio of between six and eight assets. The fund is attracting interest from the Middle East and the US, and the partners are already believed to be negotiating to buy several properties. The intention is that they will jointly asset manage these properties.
According to the chairman of Pradera Europe, Colin Campbell, the company has already been active within the Turkish property market for the last decade, and feels it is a great time to be investing. Turkey is an emerging market with a younger than average population, high growth and its banks are in good shape as Turkey underwent its own banking crisis in 2001. It's seen as being ideal for anyone able to take slightly higher risks in order to obtain higher returns.
Shopping centres have performed relatively well during the recent downturn, and Pradera has been the asset manager for Cevahir shopping centre in Istanbul for the past four and a half years. The retail market in Turkey is performing nearly as well as it did before the current economic crisis, and it's been predicted by Jones Lang LaSalle that demand in Turkey will remain high this year. This year alone has seen the opening of nine large shopping centres in Turkey, three of which were in Istanbul.
