VILNIUS - Three leading commercial banks have agreed to extend a record-breaking syndicated loan to Vilniaus Akropolis, the largest shopping mall in the Baltics.
Hansabankas announced this week that Nordea Bank Lietuva and Sampo would join it in extending a syndicated loan of 640 million litas (185.35 million euros) to Vilniaus Akropolis, the popular shopping and entertainment complex owned by Vilniaus Prekyba.
The syndicated loan will be the largest ever in Lithuania, according to Hansabankas, which will act as lead manager of the loan.
The Hansabank Group will extend some 340 million litas, while Nordea Bank Lietuva will loan some 219 million litas, and the Sampo Group about 81.3 million litas.
Vilniaus Akropolis will add the syndicated loan to its own funds earmarked for the construction of new Akropolis malls in Kaunas and Klaipeda.
In Klaipeda the Akropolis mall is scheduled to open in December, while the mall in Kaunas will be completed in mid-2006, Mindaugas Marcinkevicius, Vilniaus Akropolis' chairman, said.
Vilniaus Prekyba controls VP Market, operator of the top Baltic chain of grocery stores, including Maxima and Saulite stores in Latvia.
VP Market posted 1.1 billion litas in sales in the three Baltic countries and Romania in the first three months of 2005, a surge of 21 percent over the same period last year. The company opened its seventh retail store 's under the name Albinuta 's last month.
VP Market currently operates 195 stores in Lithuania, 88 retail outlets in Latvia, 14 in Estonia and 7 in Romania. In 2005 the chain is projecting to open about 100 new retail centers, requiring investments of about 345.3 million litas (100 million euros).
