First Title Insurance plc, a subsidiary of First Title plc and a leading provider of title insurance in the United Kingdom and Europe, recently provided title insurance to facilitate the purchase of Winmarkt Magazine by the IGD Group, one of the primary players in the Italian retail real estate market, for €182.50 million.

By providing comprehensive title insurance, First Title enabled the complex transaction to take place, replacing some of the vendor's warranties. The transaction covered 16 Winmarkt commercial centres in Romania, spanning a total of 147,000 square metres.

"These transactions highlight one of the key benefits of title insurance. Our product replaces warranties that would otherwise leave the seller with contingent liabilities upon closure of the transaction," said György Sáringer, First Title’s business development executive for Romania and Bulgaria. "First Title was pleased to have the opportunity to develop a complex, tailored policy to help the IGD Group and Winmarkt reach their goals. This is an excellent example of how title insurance can enhance value and facilitate the acquisition of property. With the Romanian real estate sector continuing to grow at an unprecedented rate, the future looks extremely promising for First Title in the region."

First Title plc has nine offices throughout Europe, with five of them located in the United Kingdom. The other offices are located in Germany, Poland, Hungary and Turkey. The company employs more than 600 employees and provides a wide range of products that enable lawyers, mortgage lenders and estate agents to deliver more efficient and advanced service to their property clients.

"The target of our first acquisition abroad was not to make an investment in a specific location, but to acquire a portfolio in order to maximize scale economies and diversify risks," said Antonio Di Berardino, IGD's director and the chief-executive-officer of Winmarkt. "However, by considering the entire portfolio, we also found many critical risk points in the acquisition phase due to the property registration system in Romania, which is subject to many uncertainties, both societal and legislative. Indeed, I believe that without the value added by title insurance and without First Title’s skills, this acquisition may not have been completed, despite the appeal of the business."