ING Real Estate Management (ING REIM), the real estate investment arm of ING Group will buy the shopping gallery at the Felicia retail project in Iasi in a deal worth around 40 million euros, according to sources on the market.

Soconac, the local branch of the French Vinci Construction Grands Projects group, in partnership with Carrefour is developing the Felicia project. The investment is worth 40 million euros and will be completed this autumn. The shopping complex will include a Carrefour hypermarket covering 8,600 square metres and a shopping gallery covering 13,000 square metres, which will be taken over by ING REIM. The project also includes a Media Galaxy store.

Representatives at Vinci construction, the project's developer, said that they were unable to make any statements "for the time being," regarding this deal.

With this transaction, the city of Iasi consolidates its status as one of the most interesting retail markets in the area, considering that it was the first city, other than Bucharest, where a mall was first developed (Iulius Mall).

Iasi was also the first city with which a transaction with a shopping complex outside the Capital was closed. The deal involved the Moldova Mall, which British Equest investment fund acquired for 34.5 million euros last year.

ING REIM entered the Romanian market at the end of last year, when it announced it was planning to invest around 200-300 million euros over the next three years to buy shopping and industrial projects outside Bucharest, as well as office space in the Capital.

"We have no comments to make for the time being," Gijs Klomp, the general manager of the local division of ING REIM told ZF. Yet, the ING Real Estate representatives said, an official announcement could be made some time next week regarding the first transaction of the company on the Romanian market. @N