The biggest real estate deal initiated last year has just crossed the finish line. After receiving approval from the Competition Council, the purchase-sale agreement of the Technopolis business park, concluded by the investment company Lords LB Asset Management and the company Technopolis Lietuva, entered into force.
The Technopolis Ozas office campus located in Vilnius, near Ozas Park, has a new owner. All stages of the purchase-sale agreement of the office campus have been completed, and Lords LB Asset Management, the acquirer, have secured their leadership status in real estate investment (NT).
According to Giedrius Bernotas, the manager of the investment company Lords LB Asset Management, the company is sustainably expanding its activities by acquiring the Technopolis office campus. ‘We work purposefully and consistently in the real estate market and we believe that we will be able to apply the acquired skills in the new purchase. This purchase is particularly important to us, as it corresponds to our aims related to investment in sustainable real estate, and in the Baltic States it is not easy to buy high-quality and large-scale commercial real estate’, said Bernotas.
Baltic Opportunity, a closed-ended investment company designed for informed investors, managed by Lords LB Asset Management, signed the purchase-sale agreement with Technopolis Lietuva last November.
In order for the agreement to enter into force, it was still necessary to receive approval from the Competition Council. Now, with their approval, Technopolis Ozas has become the property of the investors, and the office campus has been passed from Finnish to Lithuanian hands, as the only shareholder of Technopolis Lietuva was the Finnish company Technopolis.
‘Over the past ten years, we have developed Technopolis Ozas into a vibrant campus that meets the needs of various companies. With this announcement, we confirm that the sale of the campus has been completed,’ said Niko Pulli, CEO of Technopolis.
Technopolis Ozas business park is an exceptional piece of real estate. It forms approximately one-tenth of the area of modern offices in Vilnius – 106 thousand square meters with around 140 companies that rent offices. The park consists of six buildings: Alfa, Beta, Gama, Delta, Penta and Nova. All of them have LEED sustainability certificates.
According to Bernotas, the Technopolis Ozas business park was purchased with funds raised by the investment company and a 125 million EUR loan granted by the agreement of two banks, Swedbank and SEB. The banks provided the loan in equal parts, but Swedbank acted as the agent for the transaction and ensured its smooth financing.
It has been one of the most significant real estate transactions in Lithuania in recent years. Technopolis Ozas is one of the largest business parks in the capital, accounting for nine percent of the total modern, sustainable office space in Vilnius and employs almost 8.5 thousand people, creating high added value.
‘At the same time, this transaction has become the largest commercial real estate financing project of 2023, not only in Lithuania but also in all Baltic countries, hence, complex solutions were needed for this. We are proud that Lords LB Asset Management chose Swedbank as the agent for this transaction, and we successfully ensured the smooth implementation of financing’, said Ignas Mačeika, Member of the Board of Swedbank in Lithuania and Head of Corporate Customer Division.
According to Artūras Vingris, Head of SEB Client Coverage, the real estate market has recently had to face serious challenges related to high interest rates. ‘Despite the unresolved economic uncertainty, the need for modern business centres remained in Vilnius – higher class offices with developed infrastructure are in demand, but there is less and less free space for newly developed projects in the central parts of the city. We are really pleased to have financed the acquisition of Technopolis Ozas. The office campus has been taken over by one of the market leaders with many years of property management experience and the ability to bring corporate tenants together into one large office campus community. We value the trust of Lord LB Asset Management and the decision to choose SEB bank as one of the financial partners for the transaction – this is the best assessment of our long-term cooperation’, said Vingris.
