The four musketeers

It was the 17th century and four comrades in arms ? Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D?Artagnan ? fought, drank and made merry according to the rule: ?All for one, and one for all?. Will four friends who have now combined their knowledge and experience to set up REINO Partners (Real Estate Investment & Opportunities) be sticking to the famous maxim of the three musketeers and their faithful friend? The company?s business will involve the management of real estate funds, property portfolios and selected projects as an asset manager, i.e. strategic consulting in the sector.
Time to go it alone
In December Maciej Wróblewski, now a shareholder and management board member of the company, spoke at a conference organised by our company devoted to the real estate market. At the time he was still playing in the colours of French developer Apsys Poland as the vice-president of its management board. Dorota Latkowska-Diniejko, now a shareholder and on the management board of the new entity, had spent many long hours in the Liberty Corner office near Warsaw?s pl. Trzech Krzyży, where the Knight Frank real estate agency has its offices. Ms Latkowska-Diniejko was one of the agency?s shareholders and partners, heading the capital markets department providing services for players in the investment market. The second woman in the group ? Małgorzata Cieślak-Belgy ? has now given up her career at London-based Hypo Real Estate Bank International (now pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank) to focus on her own business by becoming a shareholder and vice-president of the management board of REINO Partners. The fourth partner and the president of the management board comes to Warsaw from Poznań: Radosław Świątkowski, who had been employed by BB Investment for 11 years.
Taking the first steps
?Each of the four of us had been working in the real estate market for many years. During this time, I noticed that in Western Europe similar businesses to ours are now operating, so we thought it was worth trying to use our experience to set up our own independent organisation. We know a lot of foreign investors who had considered two main issues when exploring the investment opportunities on the Polish market: whether to build an expert team here and open an office and whether or not to cooperate with experts from real estate agencies. The answers to both questions were often in the negative. However, it?s worthwhile not giving up on such expansion plans, as it is better to look for a partner company such as ours,? claims Radosław Świątkowski. The company has been officially in operation since the New Year. What has happened so far? Negotiations with the  TFI Opera investment fund have been finalised over establishing the joint closed-end OPERA REINO Development Opportunities fund. The fund, which is to have a minimum term of five years, is awaiting approval from the Polish  Financial Supervision Authority. ?I hope the PFSA will give us the green light before the end of February. The first issue of certificates is planned for the spring. The minimum that we want to obtain from the market is PLN 150 mln and the maximum ? that is, the amount imposed from above ? is PLN 500 mln,? explains Małgorzata Cieślak-Belgy, who has just returned from London, where she has been in negotiations with several funds interested in cooperation. The issue is aimed at institutional investors (pension funds and insurance companies) and individuals ? so-called private banking customers. REINO Partners is targeting the Polish market, which will be the key location for now, but has not ruled out spreading its wings into Central and Eastern Europe in the future. ?The strategy of the first fund is the realisation of development projects and opportunistic investments. Commercial properties ? with offices constituting a maximum of up to 60 pct of the portfolio, retail areas also 60 pct and warehousing up to 40 pct ? will be our core business. The choice of this strategy results from the current phase of the market and the present experience of the other partners: Dorota Latkowska and Maciej Wróblewski. We do not intend to enter the hotel sector, but we have not ruled out the residential market. We are already working on the list of possible projects,? explains Małgorzata Cieślak-Belgy.
If you make plans, do so on a grand scale
?We want to open three more funds by 2014 and manage assets worth over PLN 1 bln,? declares Radosław Świątkowski. Its plans also include a listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. These are ambitious goals considering the still relatively modest property fund sector that exists in Poland. Nevertheless, Arka BZ WBK AIB TFI and the other investment funds will now have to cross swords with a new player to defend their share of the market.
Ewa Andrzejewska