At the Benjamin House in Krišjāņa Barona Street 12, Riga, the existing hotel “Europa Royale Rīga” was sold to SIA “Benjaminu nams” for 4.82 million euros, said Jānis Balodis, the insolvency process administrator of SIA “Europa Group”.
In cooperation with the real estate company Newsec LV, the property pledged to the Lithuanian Swedbank was sold to the newly established company Benjaminu nams, represented by the real estate developer Estonian company Kapitel (formerly ELL Real Estate).
The building with all its equipment was sold for 4.82 million euros without value added tax. The sale process and the transfer of the property have been successfully completed, the property was re-registered in the name of the new owner on May 5 this year.
“This is the third Newsec hotel deal in the Baltics in 2021. In the process of selling the Benjamin House, we saw huge interest from various types of buyers – real estate developers, investor groups and especially individual investors. Buyers are looking for small hotels in good locations to revive the hotel business after pandemics or turn them into rental apartments, “explained Ģirts Grinbergs, Chairman of the Board of Newsec LV.
The land area of the property is 2346 square meters, there is one four-storey hotel building and one two-storey administrative building. It also includes movable property in real estate with more than 2,100 items – furniture, fixtures and fittings.
The house also has very valuable historical objects – both the restored piano of the Writers’ Union and a wardrobe made in the style of national romanticism, Anton Benjamin’s cabinet, Ludolf Libert’s painting “View of Paris” and a portrait of Rūdolfs Blaumanis painted by Janis Rozentāls.
The sale of the hotel without an auction to the tenderer with the best offer was announced at the end of May 2020 and initially the application deadline was set for June 26. The deadline was later extended to 31 August, 16 October, and then extended to 26 October.
The value of the forced sale of the set of cases was set at EUR 4,760,700, including EUR 4.69 million in real estate and EUR 70,700 in movable property.
It has already been reported that the hotel and its property have been pledged in favor of Lithuanian Swedbank. The debtor’s case group includes a four-star hotel “Europa Royale Riga” with 60 rooms, a restaurant, one conference hall and three banquet halls. The hotel is owned by the Europa Group.
In the autumn of 2019, an attempt was made to sell the hotel in an electronic auction with a starting price of 5.97 million euros, but the auction ended without result.
“Europa Group” was registered in 2002 and its sole owner is the Lithuanian company “Europa Group”. The share capital of the company is 2842 euros. The real beneficiaries of Europa Group are Arūnas Beleška and Romualds Barauskas. In 2018, “Europa Group” worked with a turnover of 998,561 euros and earned a profit of 21,523 euros, according to “Firmas.lv”. The company’s financial results for 2019 and 2020 have not been published yet.
Kapitel (formerly ELL Real Estate) is one of the largest real estate companies in the Baltic States. It develops and manages shopping malls, hotels and office buildings. The company’s real estate portfolio has more than 185,000 square meters of leasable space. The company owns properties or leased space in several major shopping centers (Spice and Spice Home in Riga; Panorama in Vilnius, about 30% of Viru Keskus in Tallinn) and four office buildings (Delta Plaza and Sõpruse Ärimaja). In Tallinn, “Narbuto 5” in Vilnius, “IP Pavlova 5” in Prague). The company owns the Nordic Hotel Forum (operator Nordic Hotels) and, together with Infortar, owns the Tallink City Hotel, which is managed by Tallink Hotels.
The company “Benjaminu nams” was registered on February 24, 2021, and its share capital is 2800 euros. The sole owner of the company is the Dutch company ELL Real Estate Holding BV, but the real beneficiary is Thomas Annuss, an Estonian citizen.
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