The Skopje City Mall shopping centre opened in October 2012, and the investment was estimated at over 100 million euros.
The shopping centre was built by Albanian company Balfin Group, alongside the Macedonian company Fashion Group. The company that owns the shopping centre in Macedonia is registered as Balfin MK DOOEL.
According to announcements of investors, the mall was supposed to create a total of 2,000 jobs in all stores, but this figure was not included in the calculations as the jobs were opened by the different companies that had leased space in the shopping centre.
Covering a gross area of 90,000 square meters, Skopje City Mall takes the title of the largest closed shopping centre in the country. Out of the total area of Skopje City Mall, 37,600 square meters are for leasing, and the complex also includes a parking garage with 1,300 parking spaces.
Zoran Antic, CEO of Fashion Group, and one of the investors, explained at the opening of the complex that due to the exceptional cultural, socio-economic and developmental character, as well as the excellent location and superb aesthetic and functional design, Skopje City Mall had managed to attract the attention of world retail chains that have decided to enter the market in Macedonia for the first time.
Samir Mane, CEO of Balfin Group, stated that Skopje City Mall is the first investment of this company in the real estate sector in Macedonia and announced additional investments.
"We believe that Macedonia is an excellent investment location and we would like to encourage others to participate in this market," said Mane.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) supported the construction of the mall with a loan of 19 million euros. Along with Raiffeisen Bank and Commercial Bank, the credit support reached 28 million euros.
At the opening of the Skopje City Mall speeches were delivered by former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and Skopje mayor Koce Trajanovski.
"This shopping centre is the new hallmark of Skopje. The realisation of another major investment in Macedonia," Gruevski specified.
The latest information regarding this investment is that Balfin group, in October 2015, sold Skopje City Mall to Hystead Limited, a British company, co-owned by Hyprop Investments Limited and PDI Investment Holdings Limited, for 92 million euros.
The CEO of Hyprop, Pieter Prinsloo, said that their goal is to own a portfolio of high quality shopping centres in Southeast Europe.
The company's management pointed out that the strategy of Hyprop in Southeast Europe is to buy dominant shopping centres through Hystead. Hyprop has a stake of 60% in Hystead, while PDI, a company represented by Louis Norval, owns the remaining 40%.
Hystead currently owns three centres in Southeast Europe, City Mall Skopje , Delta City Podgorica (Montenegro) and Delta City Belgrade (Serbia).
Data for 2015, for Balfin MK DOOEL, which is now owned by Hystead Limited, shows that their total assets amounted to 64.2 million euros. Of these, 61.4 million euros were non-current assets.
In 2015, the company had only 2 employees, while in 2014, they had a total of 51 employees.
The revenues of the company in 2015, according to the Central Register, amounted to 10.8 million euros, 6.3% more than in 2014. Despite this, they ended the year with a loss of about 2 million euros.