On 16 October, WING Group signed an agreement for the purchase of a majority holding in Poland’s leading property development company Echo Investment SA, which is also listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. WING will enter Echo as a strategic investor to support their long-term growth programme. The transaction will become effective upon approval by the Polish competition authority, and make WING, a Hungarian company, a significant property business also in a regional level.

Under the sale and purchase agreement, WING will acquire a 100% stake in Lisala sp.z.oo, which in turn owns a 55.96% stake in ECHO Investment S.A., a company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (GTW).

“WING, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, is Hungary’s leading property business, producing world-class buildings requiring complex professional know-how. Following its successes in Hungary, as a long term, value driven, financially stable strategic investor Wing set regional expansion as a strategic goal and identified the Polish market as the most attractive target destination. Wing sought to invest in a platform, a profitable operating company with long term growth potential. In Echo we believe that we have found the ideal opportunity to enter the Polish market. The company is a highly professional, reputable, market leading developer staffed by an outstanding team. Wing’s success has been based upon having the finest team in the Hungarian market, a team made up of ethical, hardworking professionals who are reliable and deliver the highest levels of performance. Wing’s track record of delivering complex building solutions to major international tenants underlines this performance. Wing and Echo will mutually strengthen each other on multiple levels and lead to further opportunities for development for both companies. With our acquisition of Echo, we will establish a market leading regional player in CEE”, says Noah Steinberg, Chairman and CEO of Wing.

“During the last four years we successfully turned the company from a long-term holder of completed assets to a pure developer in line with the Strategy of Profitable Growth. Echo Investment is well prepared to continue growth of development activity in Poland in residential, office and the urban destination projects. Currently Echo Investment has almost 90 projects in the pipeline, with the total estimated usable area of c.a. 1.3 million sqm. We are convinced that with the support of a new, long-term investor also being a developer, Echo Investment will continue its growth and strengthen its market position”, says Nicklas Lindberg, CEO of Echo Investment.

Echo Investment is Poland’s largest property development company and the only one with operations across the residential, retail and office segments at the same time. As a socially responsible property development company, Echo Investment is involved in several significant city-shaping, multifunctional and people-oriented megaprojects. The company’s development operations are focused on seven major Polish cities: Warsaw, Krakow, Łódź, Wrocław, Katovice, Gdansk and Poznan. In the course of its operation to date, it has developed properties with a total floor space of nearly 1.7 million square metres. Echo Investment stock has been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since 1996.

WING is the leading concern on Hungary’s property market, which is privately held by Hungarians and has a substantial project portfolio, as well as subsidiaries specialising in investment activity and property services. The company operates in all market segments, engaging in the development of offices, industrial properties, commercial properties, hotels and residential properties – it is the largest office space developer in Hungary. Over the past 20 years, it has developed properties with a total floor space of around one million square metres.

The company’s latest development projects include Hungary’s most cutting-edge and largest new office building built in a single block, Magyar Telekom’s new headquarters, the Skylight CITY office building and the new WIZZ AIR training centre. Developments in progress include the new Siemens-evosoft headquarters, Liberty Offices, BB Hotel, the Kassák Residence and Kassák Passage residential parks, the Metropolitan Garden and Park West residential projects. Already completed projects include the Ericsson headquarters, ibis Styles Budapest Airport Hotel, the E.ON headquarters, Studium Office Building, Átrium Park, Hungarian Public Service Television’s new headquarters and production base, the company’s own headquarters, Máriássy Building, and three office buildings located at Millenáris Park. The portfolio also includes industrial parks, such as the East Gate Business Park and Southern Pest Business Park; commercial development, the Agria Park shopping mall in Eger, and the Hegyvidék Shopping Mall in Budapest, Hungary’s first environmentally aware shopping centre. The company owns EuroCenter mall in Budapest and Family Center in Szombathely.

WING Zrt. started its international expansion in early 2018 with Bulgaria by purchasing two office buildings in Sofia.