Almost one year after the Italians at Immobiliare Grande Distribuzione (IGD) bought the Winmarkt shopping centres from NCH investment fund, the head of the company that manages them says, calmly, that the difficult economy period is hurting his stores less than others. ”Other mall-type centres have a tenant mix that generally sells more expensive products than the consumer’s buying power,” Antonio Di Berardino says.

However, he admits that the crisis affects everybody, ”including us”. The traffic in the 15 Winmarkt centres dropped by 17% in January, by 19% in February and preliminary March data reveal a 20-21% decline. Even so, IGD’s first year in Romania will end this month a ”little better than the target initially set”, which was 19.3 million euros in revenues from rents.

At this level, the annual yield in euros of the Italians stands at more than 10.5%, which is good even in the current context, when average investment yields are estimated in a report of real estate consultant CB Richard Ellis, at 8.5% for the best commercial properties. ”I was the first IGD manager that came in Romania in August 2007. I am not sorry for the price we paid. Maybe we could have negotiated it better in half a year, but that no longer matters now.”

The acquisition of the Winmarkt stores from investment fund NCH was the second biggest transaction on the commercial property market of Romania – 182.5 million euros. What matters now, Di Bernardino says, is improving the tenant mix, especially in terms of selection of anchors, that is the major tenants, which are food, home appliances and IT product retailers. Winmarkt signed to bring Carrefour Express in three stores and Domo in its store in Bistrita, with four contracts of the electronics retailer being extended (the company operates in four Winmarkt stores, where its contracts are to expire in 2011). The Domo stores are set to be moved to the upper floors to free up the space in the basement or ground floor for a supermarket and, on the other hand, to boost traffic to the other floors, Di Berardino explains.