Reff & Associates, the correspondent law firm of Deloitte Romania, assisted Westdeutsche ImmobilienBank AG (WestImmo), one of Germany’s leading providers of real estate financing, in a deal to refinance the Pipera-based Northgate Office Centre with 48 million Euro.
From the beginning of the year, Reff & Associates’ team for banking and finance have assisted various banks in financing deals worth over 300 million Euro, this deal included.

Class A Northgate Office Center provides 12,000 sqm to international tenants and has been developed by Creativ Group through one of its affiliate companies.

WestImmo is one of the leading German real estate banks, providing financing for institutional clients on commercial real estate properties in Europe, America and Asia Pacific.

Before reaching a successful closing of the transaction, WestImmo and its legal advisor Reff & Associates had to deal with a complex pre-existing financing and collateral structure, involving the borrower, other group-member companies and financing banks previously involved in the Northgate project.

“Not only Reff & Associates has successfully supported WestImmo with the pre-closing legal matters, but also provided important expertise for the post-closing matters”, said Alexandru Reff, Partner with the Firm. “Monitoring the balance between the commercial urge for swiftness and the legitimate demand to secure WestImmo’s position in this transaction was one of the most important tasks for Reff & Associates’ specialists.”

“This transaction is another milestone for the successful market entry WestImmo launched in 2007 in Romania, and we are more than happy to provide finance for such a prestigious building in Bucharest. We would like to thank all our partners, especially Creativ Group and Reff & Associates, for bringing this transaction to a successful end”, said Martin Erbe, WestImmo Managing Director for Central and Eastern Europe.

WestImmo was established in 1995 as the Centre of Competence for Real Estate Business within the WestLB Group. Headquartered in Mainz, WestImmo is represented with national offices in Berlin, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Münster and Munich, and with international offices in London, Madrid, Paris, Prague, Warsaw, New York, and Tokyo. With 500 employees and total assets of 23.8 billion Euro (September 2008) WestImmo is a reliable and competent partner in real estate transactions and financing activities.

Reff & Associates is the correspondent law firm of Deloitte Romania, fully integrated with the Deloitte multi-disciplinary advisory practice and affiliated to an international network of law firms and legal departments working with Deloitte all over the world. In 2007 – 2008, the banking & finance team of Reff & Associates provided assistance for tens of finance deals (either on the lender or the borrower side) with an aggregate value of over 600 million Euro.

Deloitte provides audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services to public and private clients spanning multiple industries. With a globally connected network of member firms in 140 countries, Deloitte brings world-class capabilities and deep local expertise to help clients succeed wherever they operate. Deloitte's 165,000 professionals are committed to becoming the standard of excellence.