Radovan Vítek puts Warsaw’s Spire skyscraper up for sale

CPI, the property group of Czech billionaire Radovan Vítek, has put the Spire skyscraper in Warsaw up for sale. The expected price is around CZK 9 billion. It is another step in the strategy of reducing the debt burden of Vítek’s empire.

The sale plans were reported by the news site Seznam Zprávy. Spire is a 49-storey tower 180 metres tall (220 metres with the antenna). Its lettable area is 72,000 square metres, of which 65,000 is office space. Tenants include Samsung and Goldman Sachs.

According to the outlet, Spire is the most valuable income-generating property in CPI’s portfolio. The group acquired it in 2019 for EUR 386 million (almost CZK 9.4 billion). In its report for the first half of last year, the skyscraper was valued at EUR 372 million, or more than CZK 9 billion.

Spire is far from the first asset the group is parting with. Only recently CPI offered a London building worth CZK 2.8 billion and extensive plots in Prague’s Bubny district. From January to May this year alone, the company raised around EUR 439 million (more than CZK 10.6 billion) from asset sales.

The reason for the sell-off is debt. The group’s indebtedness rose markedly in 2022, when CPI took over the Austrian companies S Immo and Immofinanz. That deal cost the group EUR 3.4 billion (more than CZK 82.6 billion). Now Vítek is shedding part of his assets to restore financial stability.