Coming out of the freezer
Small talk
Tomasz Cudowski, Eurobuild CEE: Summing up the first half year at MLP you said that it had been “business as usual”. I don’t believe that it was so stress-free...
Radosław T. Krochta, CEO, MLP Group: However I have to disillusion you; in reality the first half year went by without any major disruptions. The only problem we ran into at the beginning of the pandemic were slight delays in financing and administrative decisions. Of course this was a little awkward, but luckily it did not affect our investments. It’s true the world stopped for a while, but I went into the office every day. The only changes that we had were the disinfectants, the masks and the gloves that appeared in reception as well as slightly fewer employees as many were working from home. Other than that nothing spectacular happened.
There were no delays in collecting rents?
None. We have over 250 tenants and they all pay on time. Neither did we have any trouble organising the work inside the company nor with operating our warehouses. When I drove around to visit our buildings, I saw the normal traffic and queues of trucks to be unloaded – this was a very pleasing site. Drivers that are now on holiday are probably none too pleased to see such truck convoys, but for me it very much was so because it means that our economy is recovering.
Does your build-and-hold strategy work in hard times?
Most certainly, for us it’s a huge advantage. Just look at the transaction market which is going through quite a bit of turbulence. Many funds have called off or held back from making large acquisitions. It’s also clear that developers are far more cautious when buying land – we were able to secure land on a few occasions in some really nice locations largely because the competition backed out, when we evidently didn’t have the budget or financial resources to buy it.
On the subject of land, you’ve bought tow new plots in Łódź and Wrocław and your finalising the purchase of land in Vienna, Gelsenkirchen and Cologne. That’s a big move.
Yes, we really do have a lot of hope for the German and Austrian markets. The Germans came out of lockdown much quicker – the government benefits there were hugely generous and they quickly began to reinvest, which unfortunately in Poland has not yet happened – it’s true we have clients that are building up their warehouse capacity and some of our tenants are thinking of relocating but there is not much new investment in Poland. What we saw was when the economic freeze was lifted household spending rose but now looking at the figures you can see that some of the steam has been let out, which is sure to affect the economic figures and the speed of our return to normality. Germany and Austria are slightly different markets, where you can see a willingness to invest in new projects. This is because, a large part of German GDP is based on exports and largely to Asian markets where – as we know – the post-Covid situation looks the best.
It’s the middle of August. Have you had time to go on holiday this year?
When it comes to taking a holiday, I agree with Sławek Muturi. He cannot understand why Poles go on vacation to warm countries when it is also warm in Poland, there’s fresh fruit and the weather is beautiful. That’s why every year I can’t wait until October/November when it becomes awful and really depressing in Poland. That’s when I run off to Malta or the French Riviera, to Cannes or to Monaco. This year I plan to take a friend’s yacht over to the Mediterranean, to Malta and Sicily. That’s my favourite part of Europe where I go quite often. That’s where I am realy able to rest and relax. And in the winter I always try and visit an Arabian country.
I hear that in your free time you go running. Have you broken any personal records lately?
Not at all! I’ve been running for a good few years now but only ever for pleasure. I run 10-15 km every second day. I don’t race anyone, I don’t check my times and I don’t enter marathons. For me running is just sheerly for pleasure. When I go out running in the evening I try and forget about my everyday problems if only for a moment but I also have to admit that it’s during this time that the best solutions and ideas come to me.
