Rüdiger Keller (34) joins GRR Real Estate Management GmbH as Head of Property Management. Before this engagement with GRR REM, the business administration graduate (BA), who also has an MBA in international real estate management, had worked for E.ON Facility Management since 2007. At E.ON, he was team leader in Commercial Property Management with responsibility for managing commercial and residential real estate portfolios throughout Germany. Before that, the trained tax consultant, who has a total of ten years of professional experience in real estate management, was a management assistant at a Leipzig-based construction firm.

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Jörg M. Schulz (42) joined the Munich investment team of the international real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) as an Associate from 1 February 2013. The qualified real estate agent spent five years with Colliers Schauer & Schöll having previously supported the marketing of Munich's 'Arnulfpark' district for Vivico Real Estate GmbH.

The company recently announced the new arrival of Michael Saddei in its Berlin investment team in December of last year [we reported].

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Hochtief Projektentwicklung has now fully let the maxCologne office complex in Cologne-Deutz in time for the foreseen completion date: The 38,500 square meters of rental space in the 22-story office block are to be handed over to Lanxess in early 2013. At the end of 2012 the business law firm Görg Partnerschaft von Rechtsanwälten already took up occupancy of floors 2 to 7 in the Rheinetagen building which has an office area of around 10,500 square meters. The firm has now also secured 2,000 square meters on the first floor. Meanwhile, early this year the family-run business g-dogan will open its second restaurant in Cologne, “bona’me”, on the ground floor, serving freshly prepared Turkish-Oriental cuisine.

Work has been underway since March 2010 on the Deutz Rhine embankment, to create a modern office complex with public spaces using two existing buildings constructed in 1969 and 1978. The two maxCologne buildings meet the criteria for Gold certification from the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) and already hold DGNB Gold precertification. The purchase was overseen by HIH Hamburgische Immobilien Handlung, as an exclusive asset manager in Germany, which is handling ongoing asset management for the owner. Warburg - Henderson Kapitalanlagegesellschaft für Immobilien acquired maxCologne for its real estate special fund “RZVK-Immo-Fonds”, an individual fund for the Rheinische Versorgungskassen.

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Hamborner REIT AG has again enjoyed a highly successful financial year. 2012 was characterised largely by the company's ongoing growth. In the past year, three properties in Aachen, Tübingen and Karlsruhe were added to the company's books for around €75 million and two purchase agreements for properties in Berlin and Hamburg worth a further €50 million were also signed. This is also reflected in the improved results as against the previous year.

According to provisional annual financial statement figures that have not yet been audited, rental and leasing income again posted a double-digit increase of around 15% to €37.0 million (previous year: €32.2 million). This was primarily as a result of the new acquisitions in the past two years. The average vacancy rate remained at an extremely low level of 1.9% (1.7% including rent guarantees). The operating result was €17.5 million after €14.9 million in the previous year. This rise of around 18% is due in particular to the higher rental income. EBIT amounted to €18.4 million, around 7% higher than in the previous year (€17.1 million).

After deducting net financing costs and taxes, the net profit for the year amounted to around €7.7 million, approximately matching the previous year's figure (€7.9 million).

As a key indicator of operating performance and for the company's controlling system, FFO (funds from operations) climbed significantly by around 18% to €18.9 million (previous year: €16.0 million). FFO per share as at 31 December 2012 amounted to €0.41 (previous year: €0.47). The company's net asset value (NAV) per share is €8.17 (previous year: €8.77 per share). Hamborner carried out a capital increase in July 2012 and raised its share capital to €45,493,333. As at 31 December 2012, the greater number of shares was also reflected in the performance indicators per share.

The company's financial position remains very healthy. Essentially as a result of the capital increase, cash and cash equivalents rose by €10.6 million as against the previous year to €29.3 million. The loan-to-value (LTV) ratio is 34.2% (previous year: 39.1%). The REIT equity ratio of 60.3% is also still well in excess of the 45% required under the German REIT Act.

In light of the good business performance in 2012, the Managing Board intends - subject to the approval of the Supervisory Board - to propose to the Annual General Meeting on 7 May 2013 a consistent dividend of €0.40 per share despite the rise in the number of shares. Based on the price of shares as at the end of the year of €7.48, this marks a dividend yield of 5.3%.

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Further to its announcement on 8 January 2013, Segro announced that its €65 million (£56 million) disposal of the MPM site in Munich completed on 1 February 2013. The developer of industrial property sold the MPM site in Munich for £53 million to a private German investor.

The MPM site is fully let and is a 155,000 sq m engineering and manufacturing facility, acquired by Segro as part of a sale and lease back agreement with Krauss Maffei (formerly named MPM) in 2007. This is the first of the large non-strategic assets (identified as non-core at Segro’s Investor Day in November 2011) to be sold in Continental Europe.

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The Travelodge Hotel on Manchester Street in Oldham, previously leased to Travelodge Hotels Limited, has been sold on behalf of Piccadilly Hotels to a hotel operator for continued use, securing a future for the hotel and its staff. The 102-bedroom hotel was one of a group of hotels that were put up for sale by Christie + Co before Christmas, including other Travelodge hotels in central Bath and Edinburgh.

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Surplus Property Solutions (SPS) announced the completion of the Carillion Plc surplus lease portfolio. A significant number of the liabilities have now been entirely extinguished. SPS acquired the 330,000 square foot portfolio in late November 2011 with a transfer of the financial and management responsibilities for a score of large and complex properties from Carillion to SPS. This is the third leasehold liability transfer that SPS has brought to a conclusion in as many years. Carillion Plc was advised by Cushman & Wakefield and Ashurst on this transaction. SPS was advised by Jones Lang Lasalle, Berwin Leighton Paisner and Brodies.

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LaSalle Investment Management has forward funded Bouygues Development to construct a Morrisons Foodstore, comprising the ground and basement levels of Phase 1, Hallsville Quarter, Canning Town, London E16 involving a total commitment of £43.1m. Work on the development started in the New Year and will comprise a ground floor store of 76,660 sq ft with 400 basement car parking spaces and residential over, sold off separately. Completion of the scheme is due in early 2015.

The fund will hold a long leasehold interest and this will be entirely let to the retailer on a 25 year lease with completion, with RPI indexed linked reviews.

Sophie MacFarlane, national director, LaSalle Investment Management, comments:
“Lasalle invested in excess of £250 m in UK supermarkets over 2012 of which £66 m was towards new developments. We are extremely pleased that Bouygues' development in Canning Town was one of them and look forward to contributing to the regeneration of the area.”

GVA acted for Bouygues Development and LaSalle was advised by Wilkinson Williams.

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Howdens Joinery Co., a supplier of kitchens and joinery to trade customers across the UK, is expanding its depot in Bonnington, Edinburgh. The firm has agreed a deal with landlord, CHAP group, to occupy another unit at 5 South Fort Street Industrial Park, West Bowling Green Street in Edinburgh´s Bonnington area. Already occupying units 3 and 4 at the estate, the move will provide the business with an additional 2,900 sq ft to satisfy growing demand from its trade customers. The deal has been agreed at a rate of £18,618 per annum exclusive, with a lease term until 17 May 2022. Howdens´ existing lease on units 3 and 4 has also been re-geared to the same lease expiry date at the passing rent.

The company’s depot in South Fort Street Business Park is located in the Bonnington area, two miles north of Edinburgh city centre and adjacent to Leith. Other occupiers at the site include NTP Kitchens and Dulux Decorator Centre.

Jones Lang LaSalle acted as agent on behalf of the landlord, CHAP Group. Montagu Evans acted on behalf of Howdens Joinery Co.

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The GLA has published its Stage 2 report on the new 38-storey headquarters that American insurance holding company, W. R. Berkley Corporation, has proposed for its European business at 52-54 Lime Street in the City of London and has approved the scheme.

This follows the City planning authority’s resolution to grant planning consent for the development, which would provide over 500,000 sq ft of commercial space only metres from Lloyd’s of London, the home of the international insurance and reinsurance markets.

The proposed new tower at 52-54 Lime Street – nicknamed by commentators ‘the Scalpel’ – is designed by award-winning architects Kohn Pedersen Fox. It would create 7,700 sq ft of new public space at street level, over 1,000 sq ft of new retail space and a new 10,000 sq ft restaurant below-ground. The development is funded by W. R. Berkley, which also intends to take up to 25% of the total office space (80,000-100,000 sq ft) as the European base for its five London businesses.

At the same time, W.R.Berkley has announced that Cushman & Wakefield has been appointed for the leasing of the building, alongside DTZ, an appointment announced previously.

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Galeria Veneda, the largest shopping centre in the region which is being developed by Echo Investment, will start operating at 3:00 p.m. on the 7th of March.

Galeria Veneda is being built in the centre of Łomża, at the junction of Zawadzka Street and Sikorskiego Street. The facility has a total area of 40,000 sqm, of which 16,000 sqm is earmarked for lease. The construction work is proceeding according to schedule. The final stages are in progress, tenants are furnishing their shops and service outlets. The redevelopment of the road layout around the facility has finished.

The general contractor of Galeria Veneda is Instal Białystok. The project is nearly 95-pct leased. The architectural design of Galeria Veneda was created in the Mąka Sojka Architekci architectural studio of Warsaw in cooperation with Echo Investment’s team of architects.

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PKP SA signed a contract for Kraków Główny Station commercialisation: Jones Lang LaSalle has been appointed exclusive agent in the process of commercialisation of the retail and service area under construction within the Kraków Główny train station. The area, with a total GLA of 4,000 sq m, will accommodate approximately 60 shops.

As of 2013, PKP SA implemented new rules concerning train station commercialisation. Thanks to the support of external parties, these processes are now to be conducted faster and more efficiently. The Krakow station commercialisation contract follows 'hard on the heels' of a similar agreement signed recently by PKP SA with regards to Wrocław train station.

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NCC has been commissioned to build a new campus, housing, offices and retail space in phase one of the Carlsberg Byen area in Copenhagen. The client is the property development company Carlsberg Byen P/S and the order value is approximately SEK 1.5 billion, which will be registered among orders in the first quarter of 2013. The project comprises 101,000 m², with the largest portion, nearly 60,000 m², being a new campus for the University College Copenhagen, UCC, which will concentrate all of its operations in Carlsberg Byen. When completed, more than 10,000 students and 800 employees will work in the area.

In addition to the educational premises, the project comprises 6,500 m² of retail space, 3,500 m² of office space, 15,000 m² of residential space and nearly 20,000 m² of basement space. Carlsberg Byen will be built on Carlsberg’s former brewery area in western Copenhagen. Plans call for a total of 567,000 m² to be built in the area in the coming 15 to 20 years.

Project planning of Carlsberg Byen has already commenced and construction is scheduled to start in summer 2013. The first phase of the project is scheduled for completion at mid-2016 and the entire project will be delivered in early 2017. The Carlsberg Byen order will be registered in the NCC Construction Denmark business area during the first quarter of 2013.

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Salans has promoted two lawyers to Partner within the Global Real Estate Group.

Sergey Trakhtenberg is member of the firm’s Global Real Estate Practice Group, based Moscow. Sergey is an expert in Russian real estate M&A transactions and joint ventures, representing both vendors and purchasers. He also has considerable experience in real estate finance transactions (both on the lender and borrower side) as well as in restructurings and workouts.

Jody Saltzman is a member of the firm’s Global Real Estate Group based in New York. Jody is an expert in commercial leasing and also specialises in transactional work for both institutional and private clients.

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The IPD / ROZ Netherlands Quarterly Property Index returned -0.1% in the fourth quarter of 2012 compared with the third quarter, which showed a positive return of 0.4%. In comparison with other asset classes the Index underperformed during the fourth quarter. The best performance was for equities with 6.8% (MSCI NL), but property equities (MSCI NL/Real Estate) and bonds (JP Morgan GBI Global, NL 7-10 years) provided higher returns than direct real estate with 3.7% and 2.9 % respectively. This is the first time since the fourth quarter of 2009 that a negative total return has been reported, caused by a decrease of capital values by -1.3%.

The capital movement has now been negative for three quarters in a row and for each of the commercial sectors. For retail, the capital growth of -0.8% was the smallest in comparison with the other sectors. Offices, with a capital growth of -2.9%, and industrial with -2.6%, suffered the most negative capital declines in the fourth quarter. On a quarterly basis the income return remained stable.

Further clarification
The decrease of the capital return for all properties is not caused by the rental value growth. The rental value growth for the fourth quarter is unchanged for all properties. Retail and residential show a slightly positive rental value growth. The other sectors show a slightly negative rental value growth. During the fourth quarter there was a positive yield shift and therefore a negative capital growth. For the first time since the first quarter of 2011 the vacancy rate for the All Property level decreased. For each individual sector the vacancy rate also decreased during the fourth quarter. Industrial and offices have reported the highest vacancy rates in comparison with the other sectors. Both income and costs - the important measurements for the income return - are stable during the fourth quarter.

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Pramerica Real Estate sold the 5,728 sq m office building, Avancée B in Créteil, in France. The property, which is located at 6 rue Claude Nicolas Ledoux south east of Paris, has been purchased for €15.2 million by Allianz Pierre on behalf of Immovalor Gestion.

The asset is situated at the centre of the Zone d’activités Europarc business park in Créteil and includes 141 parking spaces. The building comprises predominantly office space and is let to five tenants including Aprolis, Valeo and MGEN. Savills advised Pramerica and was co-instructed with CBRE.

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Jones Lang LaSalle has won a new Property Management instruction for Carrefour Militari Retail Gallery. As of January 1st 2013, the company will be responsible for the property management of the shopping gallery of Carrefour Militari located West of Bucharest, with a total gross leasable area of 3,634 sq m. The property is owned by Pradera Central European Fund (PCEF) and is a well-established retail scheme trading since 2001, with Carrefour Militari being the first hypermarket opened in Romania.

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