New mall in Belgrade is region's largest

14/11/2007

The third largest company in Serbia, Delta Holding, has opened a mall with a capacity equal to the city of Novi Sad. The move caps a year of successes that included the first Serbian investment in an EU company -- Bulgaria's Piccadilly.

By Igor Jovanovic for Southeast European Times in Belgrade – 14/11/07

The new shopping centre opened earlier this month. [Courtesy of Igor Jovanovic]

Delta City, the largest shopping mall in the Balkans, opened on November 1st in New Belgrade, a section of the Serbian capital that is becoming the city's business centre. The mall takes up a space equal to 15 soccer fields, features 125 stores and has a capacity of around 200,000 people -- roughly the population of Novi Sad, the capital of Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina.

Costing 74m euros, Delta City was built in only 18 months, with the help of 52 Belgrade companies. Besides shops, the mall has a bowling alley, and a multiplex is currently under construction. The boon to the local economy could be significant, as up to 1,500 jobs will be created.

The venture caps a year of expansion for Delta Holding, the third largest company in Serbia, behind the state-owned oil and electricity suppliers, and one of the top five in the region. In September, the company's retail subsidiary Delta Maxi bought an 85% stake in Piccadilly, a Bulgarian chain. It is the first investment by a Serbian firm in a company from the EU.

The new owners plan to make Piccadilly the biggest retailer in Bulgaria, with a market share of between 20% and 25%. They will invest 70m euros to open 20 new outlets, employing 1,000 workers over the next two years, according to Delta representative Dragan Filipovic.

The plans for expansion don't stop there. Founder Miroslav Miskovic says more malls are coming -- two in Belgrade and one each in Novi Sad and Nis. In 2008, the company plans to open a mall in the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, as well as in Banja Luka, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH) Serb entity, Republika Srpska. Delta Maxi already has taken over BiH's second largest retail chain, Tropik.

In addition, the company is in negotiations to open a shopping mall in Zagreb, and has its eye on similar projects in Tirana, Skopje, Bucharest, and Sofia. Serbian authorities have welcomed the expansions, saying they open the way for Serbian manufacturers to place their products on the EU market as well as regional ones.

Delta Holding has also experienced setbacks. It planned a merger with Croatia's largest chain of stores, Agrokor. But in September the deal was suspended, with Delta claiming that authorities in Zagreb were putting up roadblocks.

Croatia wants to keep Serbian capital out, the company said -- a charge the Croatian government denies.

Owner Miskovic is one of Serbia's wealthiest businessmen. In 2001, he was kidnapped by members of the so-called Zemun Clan and released after he paid them millions of euros in ransom. The same gang was responsible for the murder of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in March 2003.

On October 30th, Belgrade-based TV B92 reported that Miskovic has been banned from entering the United States due to connections with the regime of Slobodan Milosevic. After the regime fell, the broadcaster said, he linked up with new authorities and has since been able to take on a key role in privatisation.

Miskovic protects his position by generously financing Serbian political parties, B92 claimed.

Delta has denied the allegations, saying they are part of a smear campaign. "The announcement of such news just a day before the opening of Delta's biggest investment -- the Delta City shopping mall -- clearly shows that this is a carefully planned and designed campaign aimed at destroying the company's reputation," it said in a statement.