Olomouc City center was sold yesterday in the first forced auction of a shopping center in the Czech Republic. The hammer came down at CZK 373m (€15m), a considerable rise from the initial price of CZK 250m. Mint Investments, owned by Sebastien Dejanovski and Radim Bajgar, have acquired the project in a 30 minute auction that saw 49 bids, that added hundreds of thousands, even millions of Czech crowns to the previous bid, according to the sales director of Naxos Libor Nevšímal. Six investors, mostly Czech, took part in the auction. The 18,000 sqm Olomouc City center, anchored by CineStar, opened in 2005 and is 88 percent leased. The annual revenue is around €2.5m. aAIM, the original owner, used it as a collateral on a bank loan it ceased servicing, leading the bank to initiate the auction.
