Hotels, residential complex, offices. The fifth richest Czech Vítek sells

A few years ago he bought in bulk, now he sells. The CPIPG holding of the fifth richest Czech, Radovan Vítek, has already sold hotels in Croatia or a ski resort. Since last year, real estate tycoon Radovan Vítek has been cleaning up his portfolio and selling properties for more than 2.3 billion euros across Europe. In the first half of this year alone, Vítka’s group sold real estate worth 980 million euros and will complete further sales worth roughly 400 million euros in the coming months.

The value of all the group’s assets thus fell slightly this year to the current 21.2 billion euros (of which 18.6 billion euros are real estate). At the same time, the value of real estate in CPIPG’s portfolio decreased slightly in the past year. Although the largest Central European real estate tycoon jumped up one place in the current Forbes ranking, which can be found in the October issue, the estimate of his assets fell slightly compared to last year’s ranking.

By selling real estate from Vítka’s portfolio, the CPIPG group firstly pays off the debts it took on with the giant acquisitions of the Austrian real estate companies Immofinanz and S Immo, and secondly gets rid of real estate in which it was not really interested in real estate packages as part of large purchases. Debt reduction, which is now a priority for the group, goes hand in hand with the pressure created on CPIPG since the end of last year by short sellers from the American company Muddy Waters.

These are the biggest CPIPG sales since the end of last year.

Sunny Hvar Hotels, Croatia

• November 2023
• price: 5 billion crowns
• buyer: Eagle Hills, under Emaar Properties of Dubai

Sunny Hvar

Sunny Hvar Hotels, Croatia. Foto CPIPG

Radovan Vítek took control of the trophy asset in the form of Sunčani Hvar, which manages about eighty percent of the hotel capacity in Croatian Hvar, including the most luxurious local hotel Palace Elisabeth, in 2016. At the end of last year, he sold the hotels to the Eagle Hills company, which was founded by Mohamed Alabbar, the owner of the development group Emaar Properties. She also built the Burj Khalifa skyscraper.

Half share in CPI Hotels and eight domestic hotels

• members 2024
• price: approximately 4.3 billion crowns
• buyer: Best Hotel Properties (under J&T) in a joint venture with CPIPG

At the beginning of the year, CPIPG joined the newly formed CPI Kvinta company together with the Best Hotel Properties group, which is supported by the J&T financial group. The Vítka group invested eight hotels in the Czech Republic and the company CPI Hotels, which manages the hotels of the CPIPG group, into the joint venture. According to CPIPG, the value of the portfolio in the joint venture is 350 million euros (about 8.6 billion crowns).

Crans-Montana Ski Resort, Switzerland

• May 2024
• price: 2.5 billion crowns
• buyer: Vail Resorts (USA)

This spring, Vítek got rid of the Swiss luxury ski resort in Crans-Montana, where the Alpine Skiing World Cup is also held. The buyer was the American company Vail Resorts, active in mountain resorts and headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, which paid 2.5 billion crowns for the ski resort.

Concept Tower in Warsaw, Metrogate House in London and Grand Center in Zagreb

• February 2024
• price: a total of 2 billion crowns
• buyer: Wood & Company Real Estate Fund in Warsaw and local investors in London and Zagreb

Grand Center in Zagreb. Foto CPIPG

The Concept Tower office building in Warsaw was purchased by CPIPG in 2020. At the beginning of this year, the building was part of a package of three properties that the group got rid of for a total of two billion crowns. The Warsaw building was purchased by Wood & Company Real Estate Fund. Another building in the package was the Grand Center Zagreb office building in Zagreb, Croatia. The third sale was the Metrogate House student accommodation in London.

Adlerhof residential complex, Vienna, Austria

• November 2023
• price: 1.2 billion crowns
• buyer: Thalhof Immobilien (Austria)

Adlerhof residential complex

The sale of the Adlerhof residential complex was the largest ever transaction on the Austrian residential market last year. CPIPG acquired the complex through the acquisition of S Immo. At the end of last year, it sold it to a major Viennese real estate player, Thalhof Immobilien.

Victoriei Development, Bucharest, Romania

• August 2024
• price: 680 million crowns
• buyer: AFI Europe (Israel)

Myhive Victoriei office building in Bucharest. CPIPG visualization

The Myhive Victoriei office building was the first modern office building in Bucharest in 1998. The company Immofinanz Group acquired it in 2021. Vítka’s group completed the sale to the Israeli real estate company AFI Europe this summer.