March 2nd, 2021 - Riga, Latvia: BTA Baltic Insurance Company has acquired a large residential portfolio in Riga (properties located at 121 Ģertrūdes Street, 13 Alauksta Street and 35 Artilērijas Street) from the Rentejas real estate private equity firm. This is the largest ever portfolio transaction in the multi-family residential sector in Latvia.

Wolfgang Stockmeyer, Chairman of the Board at BTA Management, said: “We are very pleased to announce the acquisition of an attractive residential portfolio with a strong operational platform, and with this transaction, we are investing in a very stable and well performing asset class. With this transaction, we underline our trust in the Latvian economy and prove our intentions to invest further in our business in Latvia.”

The portfolio includes seven residential buildings at three locations comprising more than 170 tenanted units, all well-located in the central part of the City of Riga.

The seller is SIA Rentejas, which is a Latvian-Austrian capital company which specializes in the reconstruction and management of rental houses and provides full-service property management services. The partners have agreed not to disclose the scope of the investment. This is the first major investment by BTA Baltic Insurance Company in the private rental residential portfolio in Riga.

Kārlis Gabrilovičs, a board member at SIA Rentējas, comments, “The deal with BTA provides additional funding for our current development sites and allows us to take on new projects. Our business model is to fully renovate distressed historical buildings in Riga’s city centre and to bring them up to modern comfort and environmental standards – without compromising the historical flair of the buildings. Our pipeline contains over 100 new rental apartments on Avotu, A. Čaka, and K. Valdemāra streets. As an operator, we strongly believe in building up relationships with each of Rentējas’ individual tenants, and this has helped us through this very troubling pandemic.”

Felix Waechter, Managing Director at ILAG, the main shareholder of SIA Rentējas, added, “We are very pleased with the portfolio that we have managed to build in Riga over the last decade and are confident our buildings are in good hands with BTA, the new owners. We owe our success to our Latvian partners who have created a product that is in high demand – well-designed and well-managed living space in the heart of the city. We are also thrilled to serve the broader community by restoring abandoned architectural landmarks.” This rental residential portfolio transaction is the largest transaction ever in the multi-family sector in Latvia. The multi-family sector in the Baltics is in its initial development stage. However, we see positive trends for this asset to become more attractive in future.

“It is worth noting that the residential sector was less affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and showed high resilience across Europe in 2020. Growth in multi-family housing investment has been observed in recent years, becoming the largest asset class by investment volume in 2020. The private rental housing sector continues to attract developer and investor interest in the region and beyond.  We are also seeing more activity in the multifamily sector in Riga and interest should remain strong”, says Vineta Vigupe, Director of Investment Properties at CBRE Baltics.

CBRE Baltics represented the buyer, acting as a full-service transaction advisor, including valuation and technical due diligence services.

About CBRE Baltics
CBRE Baltics offers a broad range of integrated commercial real estate services for developers, investors and occupiers, including strategic consulting, property sales, property leasing, facility and property management, project management, market research, real estate due diligence and valuation. CBRE Baltics has offices in Riga, Vilnius and Tallinn, and the company is part of the CBRE Affiliate network.

More information: www.cbre.lv and www.cbre.com.

About BTA
BTA Baltic Insurance Company is one of the leading insurance companies in the Baltics, offering the broadest range of non-life insurance services in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. BTA employs more than 1,000 employees in the Baltics. Vienna Insurance Group AG is the sole shareholder of BTA, with close to 200 years of experience in the insurance business. Vienna Insurance Group is a clear market leader in its Central and Eastern European markets with about 50 companies in 30 countries and more than 25,000 employees,  taking care of more than 22 million customers. Vienna Insurance Group is the best-rated company on the ATX, the leading index at the Vienna Stock Exchange (since 1994) with a rating of A+ with a stable outlook from Standard & Poor’s; its shares are also listed on the Prague Stock Exchange. Vienna Insurance Group works in close partnership with Erste Group – the largest retail bank in CEE.

Additional information:
Elīna Rasmane
Director, Marketing and Public Relations Department
BTA Baltic Insurance Company AAS
e-mail: elina.rasmane@bta.lv