The 2020 CIJ Awards Czech Republic Best Asset Management Company of the Year Czech Republic 2020
Today, we would like to share with you the success we have achieved. As part of the 2020 CIJ Awards Czech Republic ceremony, we won the prestigious Best Asset Management Company category. The CIJ Awards are longest-running commercial property awards event in the Czech Republic and have evolved continuously over the past 20 years to keep pace with changes in local, regional and international property markets. The announcement of winners is usually a major cultural and social event. However, due to pandemic situation, it was not possible to organize the entire evening program. Nevertheless, we are very pleased that we were able to attend the event this year and it was our great honor to take over the award in person. Our co-founder Robert Ides accepted the award for our ARETE group. Robert shared his immediate impressions: “We are really happy to win in such a competition. Of course, the award and thanks go to our entire team. We appreciate CIJ Award immensely and it is a declaration of our long-term credibility and serious approach.”
We have entered into a partnership with the best Czech professional golfer Ondřej Lieser
We are happy to announce that we have decided to support the growth of the career of professional golfer and future Olympian Ondřej Lieser, the best Czech player in the world golf ranking and the first Czech player on the PGA European Tour. Ondřej is currently preparing intensively for the next Tour tournament and at the same time is already tuning his sport’s form for this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo. Nevertheless, he found time for a short interview with our colleague Tereza Kasarda. They were talking about how he is prepared for the upcoming challenges and who is his biggest inspiration. We bring all this to you in a short interview. We thank Ondřej for the interview, we keep our fingers crossed for him and we believe that he will be very successful at the Olympic Games and the PGA European Tour as well! Tereza: What does it mean for you to get full membership on the PGA European Tour, first league of European golf? Ondřej: It means a lot to me, because I managed to move the boundaries of Czech golf forward. I am the first Czech player in history to win two out of five tournaments in one season, making me the overall winner of the 2020 Challenge Tour. Tereza: I assume that this season is extraordinary for you in all respects, I mean entry into the PGA European Tour and probable participation in the Olympic Games in Tokyo? Are you ready for the challenges of this season? Ondřej: The last season was definitely successful, I am a player in the second hundred world golf ranking, no Czech player has ever been above. I am definitely ready for the challenges and I look forward to them. Like almost every professional athlete, I would love to play at the Olympics. Tereza: How important is it for a professional athlete to have strong partners? Ondřej: Having strong partners is very important for us as athletes. Thanks to my Golf Geum Technology team and strong partners like ARETE, I can focus fully on golf and that helps me a lot in my journey. Tereza: You have achieved considerable success. What else would you like to achieve? What are your goals? Ondřej: I learned to win in strong international competition. In 2021 I would like to build on the successes of the last season. At the same time, I would like to play at the Olympics. The way I play shot from shot on fairways and greens, I set goals that I can achieve in the new season and I follow my path step by step. Tereza: Who or what inspires you? Ondřej: I am definitely most inspired by my wife, who motivates me to be better and work on myself. From the golf environment, they are the ones who were at the top and despite falling down, they managed to return to the top again. Ondřej Lieser is a Czech professional golfer who has been a full member of the PGA European Tour since 2021. The young, promising athlete, became the first golfer from the Czech Republic to win the Andalucía Challenge de España on the Challenge Tour in 2020 and received a full playing card on the PGA European Tour. Ondřej was announced the best Czech professional golfer for the year 2020.
Industrial Parks Making Money Even During Pandemic
Czech funds outperform foreign ones Once again, it has been confirmed that investing in industrial real estate is almost a safe bet. According to the real estate consulting company Savills, last year in continental Europe revenues from premium industrial properties and premium shopping centers were almost the same for the first time in history, as demand for logistics grew up sharply. You can read about us, as market leaders in the field of industrial real estate with gross return exceeding 17% p.a., about one of the largest transaction made last year and about a new acquisition in our third fund in the attached article only in Czech: https://www.novinky.cz/ekonomika/clanek/industrialni-arealy-i-v-koronakrizi-pohadkove-nesou-40350193
ARETE plans significant investments in its third fund for 2021
ARETE Group fulfils its investment strategy by entering into a sale agreement with Cromwell European REIT (CEREIT), sells an overall portfolio of its second fund for EUR 113.2 million and plans significant investments in the third fund for 2021. Read the whole article here: https://cijeurope.com/en/arete-plans-significant-investments-in-its-third-fund-for-2021/post.html
Industrial Parks Making Money Even During Pandemic
Czech funds outperform foreign ones Once again, it has been confirmed that investing in industrial real estate is almost a safe bet. According to the real estate consulting company Savills, last year in continental Europe revenues from premium industrial properties and premium shopping centers were almost the same for the first time in history, as demand for logistics grew up sharply. You can read about us, as market leaders in the field of industrial real estate with gross return exceeding 17% p.a., about one of the largest transaction made last year and about a new acquisition in our third fund in the attached article in the daily Právo, only in Czech.
“I invest in tangible, income generating assets with return on investment above inflation,” says successful businessman Lubor Svoboda
On one hand, it is good to have cash, because it is the “king”, as it is popularly called, but on the other hand, the money in the account quickly loses value. In an interview with FAEI.cz, Lubor Svoboda, co-founder of the successful real estate fund Arete that focus on premium warehouses and logistics centers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, brings his relatively conservative view on investing, what he thinks about cryptocurrencies, gold and bonds and what future awaits investors in the industrial real estate segment. The whole interview in CZ: https://faei.cz/investuji-do-hmotneho-s-vynosem-nad-inflaci-rika-uspesny-byznysmen-lubor-svoboda/?utm_source=www.seznam.cz&utm_medium=sekce-z-internetu#dop_ab_variant=0&dop_req_id=GB77jZOGAUu-202101180202&dop_source_zone_name=hpfeed.sznhp.box
Arete acquires industrial asset in Slovakia
The third fund of Czech investor Arete Group has acquired a modern, highly specialized production facility with a research and development centre and with the potential for further development in Kežmarok, Slovakia. The value of the investment exceeded €10 million. The whole article can be found here: https://www.property-forum.eu/news/arete-acquires-industrial-asset-in-slovakia/7348
Industrial property of company Hengstler new in portfolio of our third fund
The third fund of the ARETE Group acquired a modern, highly specialized production facility with research and development center and with the potential for further development in Kežmarok, Slovakia. The investment exceeded EUR 10 million. The third fund of the ARETE Group focused on quality industrial and logistics assets in the region of Central and Eastern Europe completed the acquisition of a production facility in Kežmarok, Slovakia, in December 2020. It is the purchase of a complex used not only for production and storage, but also as a global research and development center of the German company Hengstler with a 150-year history, which is part of the globally operating American industrial and technological group FORTIVE. The financial volume of the transaction exceeded EUR 10 million. “Current completion of this transaction is a clear signal that we are able to fulfil the fund’s strategy regardless of the complications of the covid-19 pandemic. We are able to find interesting investment opportunities with further development potential. The strategic goal is to purchase quality industrial properties into the fund and to acquire creditworthy international tenants with a high rating. The acquisition thus fully fulfils both of just mentioned attributes. An important factor for us is that the tenant is interested in expanding and investing in sophisticated research and development technologies in the locality. Other vacant plots of land that are part of the acquisition allow us to create conditions for long-term and stable growth of the tenant. We are pleased to welcome company Hengstler to our portfolio of premium tenants,” said Lubor Svoboda, co-founder of the ARETE Group. “It is a premium class industrial complex built in 2017, which has over 10.000 sqm of leasable area with the possibility of expansion by another almost 5.000 sqm, while in the course of 2021 it is planned to start new construction. The property is for 100% leased to the German company Hengstler. FORTIVE, a global industrial and technology holding company to which Hengstler belongs, is a company listed on The New York Stock Exchange, is part of the Nasdaq index and had sales of USD 7.3 billion in 2019. The high credibility of the tenant is proven by the fact that in 2019 alone, the FORTIVE group achieved a profit of more than USD 1 billion,” explains Robert Ides, co-founder of the ARETE group, and continues: “Hengstler’s interests in Kežmarok are strategic and long-term. It currently employs approximately 400 highly skilled employees not only in manufacturing but also in its global research and development center. The advantage of the region is the good availability of skilled labour. The tenant has a long-term lease contract. Its production program is highly diversified – the key components of the production program are various specialized electromechanical components, control panels and relays, which are supplied across all markets without specific industry or customer dependence,” concludes Robert Ides the positive evaluation of the transaction.
ARETE Group fulfils its investment strategy by entering into a sale agreement with Cromwell European REIT (CEREIT) and sells an overall portfolio of its second fund for EUR 113.2 million
ARETE Group and Cromwell European REIT signed a purchase agreement where ARETE INVEST CEEII sells its overall portfolio for EUR 113.2 million at net operating income yield of 6.7%. Transaction is expected to close in Q1 2021, allowing for the full fiscal year 2020 closing and smooth handover period. The Portfolio comprises 11 logistics and light industrial properties in the Czech Republic and Slovakia with almost 100% occupancy rate leased to 17, mainly international tenants. Its overall leasable area of 125,000 sqm, additional 140,000 sqm for further development and future growth, ranks this transaction as second largest in the Czech Republic while it represents almost 25% of the overall industrial investment transactions volume concluded in the Czech Republic in 2020 to date. “This step represents a significant milestone in our fund strategy and proves that our defined target in 2016 , to build and compile a portfolio of quality logistics and light industrial assets throughout a 5 year investment cycle, is now delivered on. It also clearly demonstrates that through consistent approach, the portfolio meets high quality standards demanded by institutional investors such as Cromwell European REIT, a listed and publicly traded REIT on Singapore stock exchange. Consistency and transparency always were and will remain to be key fundamentals of our strategy and we intend to retain and further enhance those in our third fund, ARETE INDUSTRIAL, which currently initiated its investment phase” commented Robert Ides, co-founder of ARETE group. “As proven in our second fund, we are confident that again we will confirm our ability to deliver on strategy, meet expectations of our investors’ base in the upcoming years and compile much larger and coherent portfolio of high quality industrial and logistic assets in the CEE region with its target value of at least EUR 400 million. Our third fund should even more elevate quality of assets and meet highest standards of institutional investors. I’m really proud we will be delivering on our promise and as the only fund in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, executing on divestment of an overall fund’s portfolio” added Lubor Svoboda, co-founder of ARETE Group. Mr. Karol Pilniewicz, Head of Central Eastern Europe (CEE) for Cromwell Property Group said: “We are delighted to be able to support CEREIT on this transaction. We are actively looking for acquisitions for a range of different capital partners, mainly in Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia with a particular focus on core plus, value-add and opportunistic opportunities”. With JLL‘s forecast volume of EUR 1.66 billion invested into the Czech Republic and Slovakia this year, almost 30% of the transacted volume was allocated into logistics and industrial properties. “It is a trend of recent years that real estate investments in both countries are strongly focused on prime strategically located industrial and logistics properties with combination of strong covenants and long leases. ARETE INVEST CEE II Portfolio stands out as an investment product and we are proud to have worked closely with the ARETE team ensuring maintaining momentum of one of the key deals of 2020 through this challenging pandemic year. The transaction represents one of the largest industrial transactions this year and is testament to the solid and resilient nature of the industrial/logistics market in CEE” commented Mike Atwell, Head of Capital Markets CEE for JLL.
Cromwell to acquire €113.2 million logistics portfolio in CEE
Cromwell EREIT Management Pte. Ltd., the manager of Cromwell European Real Estate Investment Trust announced that it will be acquiring a portfolio comprising 11 logistics and light industrial properties in the Czech Republic and Slovakia for an aggregate purchase price of €113.2 million, on a net operating income yield of 6.7%. The seller is Arete Invest, acting on behalf of its sub-fund Arete Invest Podfond CEE II. The whole article can be found here: https://www.property-forum.eu/news/cromwell-to-acquire-1132-million-logistics-portfolio-in-cee/7228
