RETROSPECTIVE 2009 - investments in category of SHOPPING CENTERS that drew greatest interest of eKapija's users in 2009

EKapija's investment team has recently done the analysis and formed the rank list of investments and investment ideas that drew the greatest attention of eKapija's users in 2009. The results are very interesting, with plenty of surprises, so that we've decided to share this information with you.

The projects are divided into 12 categories. This time we are presenting the top 15 in the category of SHOPPING CENTERS.

This year's rank-list looks like it is directed because all fifteen stories are "directed" by "big players" in our market. As if somebody wanted that nobody either take offense or be favored. But, in the end, everything is "directed" only by eKapija's users themselves.

The first-ranked is the facility that drew big attention of readers in the first half of the year and none of the other projects managed to surpass the level of attention it caused. The biggest trade center in the region, under the name of Ušće Shopping Center, at the surface of 130,000 square meters, is 150m EUR worth of investment realized by MPC Properties (a product of joint investment of Belgrade’s MPC Holding and U.S. Merrill Lynch).

Ušće now lives its ecoomic life, it has become a “fancy” place for most of the population in the “Danubian” part of New Belgrade, as well as those citizens who live on the other side of the Branko’s Bridge.

The second on this list is story “Waiting for Godot”. How many times we read in 2009 that “Ikea is coming” or “Ikea is not coming”, “Ikea is coming in this way”, “Ikea is not coming after all, but it is coming”. We hope that a good model will be found. Year 2010 started with some positive announcements regarding Ikea, so we can hope that Serbia will be an important spot on the map of one such empire as Ikea.

The third story was related to opening of 25m EUR worth of Merkur Center in Karaburma at 29,000 square meters, with 100 new workers, meaning that Merkur Group kept its promise about big plans for Serbia, which were announced by Bojan Pongrac in mid-2009.

Swedish Ikea has not arrived in Serbia yet, but Austrian Kika did, at the end of 2009. New place for you and your family to visit when buying new furniture and other goods stands next to Merkur on Bežanijska Kosa. Maybe you won’t find many pieces of cheap furniture, but you will surely find plenty of beautiful, attractive and imaginative furniture.

That is why this story is the fourth on this rank list.

The fifth and the sixth are the projects in the second and the third largest cities in Serbia. French Mr.Bricolage chain has opened a center in Niš and announced an investment in Novi Sad, while BIG CEE opened a center in Novi Sad and announced investments in Belgrade and Kruševac.

Familija Market has continued its expansion and ended on the seventh place of the rank list, while the eighth are four brave ladies (Vesna Ječmenica, Dragana Zeljković, Divna Minić and Milka Tomić-Perović), the frontmen of Nitea, Haus, Kare and Micros Group, who have opened exhibition-retail office space Kompresor in Žorža Klemansoa Street in Belgrade, which is the result of new architectural transformation of former car servicing hall of automobile company Kompresor.

Interex did not want to leg behind in this race, so that it opened its facilities in Čačak and Obrenovac and took the ninth place on this list.

The beginning of May was marked by one not so much financially as it is conceptually significant investment. We could say that it is the investment intended for ladies. The women of Belgrade have discovered this small textile-footwear empire called Italian mall, an outlet in Surčin, which is the tenth of the list.

The eleventh is future Delta Park in Kragujevac, Pluto capital in Leskovac is the 12th, Roda centers in Senta and Sombor are the 13th, Metro Cash&Carry in Subotica is the 14th, while the 15th is the campaign for continuous expansion of Valdi brand throughout Vojvodina.