Casa de Insolventă Transilvania, administrator of the City Mall scheme in Bucharest, has announced that the asset is to be auctioned on 31 March with a starting price of EUR 33 mln.

The shopping centre went into receivership at the end of last year after failing to meet debt payments with creditors such as banks Unicredit and Bancpost. According to Romanian press reports, the lenders have a EUR 40 mln exposure to the scheme in the Eroii Revoluţiei area. In total, the centre carried debt of around EUR 75 mln.

Australian fund APN European Retail Trust bought the complex in late 2006 for EUR 104 mln, the highest figure ever paid for a single property.