DLA Piper has advised Helaba Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen on the refinancing of the Bero Centre, a shopping centre, in Oberhausen. Helaba financed the restructuring, which is being supported on the owners’ side by the asset manager Kintyre Investments, with a loan of 86 million euros.

The Bero  Centre was opened in 1971 and in autumn 2015 was extended by 18,000 m² to 44,000 m² of rentable floor space as part of a two-year development project during . During this time, a sum of more than 40 million euros was invested. In 2011, the property was acquired from South African investors jointly with an institutional Israeli investor.

The  Centre  now contains 100 shops, among them Kaufland, Aldi, dm, Intersport Bechtel, McDonald’s, BabyOne as well as Medimax, Kult, Action, Dänisches Bettenlager, Woolworth and Reno shoes. The shopping centre is situated in the city of centre of Oberhausen, within walking distance of the main station and also accommodates doctors’ surgeries, law firms and catering services.

As one of the largest German real estate financiers, Helaba offers financial services to companies, banks, institutional investors and the public sector, both within Germany and internationally. It simultaneously acts as a central clearing institution and service provider for 40 per cent of German savings banks. Helaba operates from its headquarters in Frankfurt am Main and Erfurt, but has smaller branches in Dusseldorf, Kassel, Berlin, Stuttgart, Munich and Münster. On an international level, the bank acts through branches and representative offices in Paris, London, New York, Madrid, Moscow, Shanghai, Singapore and Stockholm.

The DLA Piper team led by partner Frank Schwem included senior associate Dr Katalin Legradi, associate Martin Wilmsen (all Finance & Projects, Frankfurt), partner Catherine Pogorzelski, Counsel Xavier Guzman, senior associate Ambroise Foerster (all Corporate, Luxembourg), as well as counsel Christian Lonquich (Real Estate, Frankfurt).