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New Europe Property Investments (NEPI) has acquired City Business Centre (CBC) in Timisoara, Romania. Jones Lang LaSalle, which acted for the seller, described the deal as the largest ever completed in the country's office sector outside Bucharest.

The investment volume was not disclosed but PropertyEU understands NEPI is paying around EUR 45 mln for the first three completed buildings. When two more buildings are delivered the full scheme will be valued at about EUR 80 mln.

NEPI is a South African investment fund that invests in Central and Eastern European real estate. The vendor was millionaire businessman Ovidiu Sandor and his partners. Sandor will continue to develop the next two phases of City Business Centre and will continue to manage the property, as well as the leasing of the office complex.

Troy Javaher, managing director for Jones Lang LaSalle in Romania, said: 'Despite the challenging economic environment, the indisputable success of this award-winning office complex, has attracted several offers from major international players in the last 3-4 years. As the first major institutional office transaction outside Bucharest, CBC is of particular importance to this evolving market, as it demonstrates the continued existence of investor demand for regional projects provided that they are truly prime and dominant.'

The three existing buildings comprise 25,000 m² of lettable area and are 90% leased to large international tenants such as IBM, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Vodafone, Alcatel-Lucent, Wipro Technologies, BCR, Deloitte and Microsoft. More than 2,000 people operate from the scheme. The construction works for the fourth building are under way and it is due for delivery the summer of 2012. The fifth building is due for delivery by the end of 2013. Both buildings already benefit from solid and increasing occupier interest, JLL said.

Upon final completion, CBC will span over 43,000 m² gross leasable area and will include five state-of-the-art interlinked structures arranged in master-planned setting in the heart of Timisoara, Romania.

Timisoara is one of the largest cities in Romania with a population of circa 320,000 inhabitants and it is considered the 'capital city' of the western region of Romania.