Briefs

Dutch investors set up base in Poland

Rodamco Europe, investors in such key projects in Warsaw as Galeria Mokotów and Złote Tarasy, are to move into offices in Mokotów Business Park as of April 9th. Eighty per cent of the Dutch investors' portfolio is taken up by shops and retail centres.

Real estate agents report success for 2002

Cushman & Wakefield H&B who operate the European division of global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield, have recorded a turnover of GBP 108 mln for 2002, up 12 per cent on the previous year and a profit which increased by 18 per cent, something the company claims is its second highest ever.

PIA Piasecki's profile change brings in British firm

The formerly troubled construction company PIA Piasecki has entered into discussions with British firm Klesch & Co, which specialises in investing in companies such as PP, who are undergoing a restructuring process. This it hopes will allow it to become a service company, which buys, consolidates and sells commercial banks' bad debts. The leading executives in both PIA Piasecki and Klesch have presented an initial proposal to the former's crediting banks.

 

A product in the making

Having acquired ten properties in the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, the HypoVereinsbank Group is not finished with Central Europe yet. As Doris Schumacher of HVB maintains, preparations for the establishment of a new investment product, aimed at investing in the best property in the region, are in full swing.
Zentral Immobillien Fonds, part of the HVB group, was the first fund operating in the Polish market, which decided to invest outside the capital (the Euromarket business centre in Kraków), and owns all of the property the group has purchased so far in Central Europe. The Kraków scheme turned out to be a fine choice, "We altered a number of the tenancy agreements and the investment has produced excellent results ever since," says Doris Schumacher, adding that HVB are interested in acquiring property in several other regional cities. "I'm convinced of their progress and think of them as a ten-year prospect. Indeed, they may become central to HVB's future deals, as the company are conducting negotiations with German pension funds who are interested in investing in the Central European real estate market."