AEW Europe ready to go shopping

“We are analysing different assets in terms their profile and our funds’ strategies. We are interested in office and retail buildings. High street properties are also interesting us, as well as the warehouse and logistics segments,” says Ewa Parys, the head of asset management in Central Europe at AEW.

AEW has been active in the latter segment for quite some time and is now set to make more acquisitions of such properties. “We will probably be launching a new capital raising to acquire warehousing on behalf of our clients and for logistics acquisitions in Europe, with the aim of adding to our logistics fund this year. At the end of 2014 we had already raised EUR 834 mln of new capital for logistics from existing and new clients. We have been very active since then in investing these funds across Europe and in Central Europe. Among the 16 acquisitions we made last year one was a EUR 150 mln Czech logistics park in Prague, comprising 255,000 sqm. In 2015 we also invested near Warsaw and in the Silesia region,” says Ewa Parys.

The manager also intends to divest some of the properties in the company’s portfolio. The first step is to be the disposal of an office asset in Prague. AEW is not aiming, however, to secure buyers for its Polish retail assets. “Both Klif shopping centres will remain in our portfolio. They are regarded as long-term investments and we will continue to treat them as such,” insists Ewa Parys. “Internet sales obviously have been having an impact on tenants’ turnover, but I believe that e-commerce will only impact shopping centres to a certain extent. Shopping centres are already successfully adapting to the new situation and have positioned themselves accordingly. They have become a venue for meetings, shopping and spending free time, which is still the most attractive feature for customers. Apart from that, Polish society is becoming more prosperous, and this, combined with the promising economic outlook for Poland and the rest of the region and the increase in consumption, will contribute positively to sales, especially in the big cities,” says the head of asset management for Central Europe at AEW.

This does not mean, however, that the company has no plans at all for the Klif centres in Warsaw and Gdańsk. “We are very pleased with the results of the Warsaw Klif. After modernisation and repositioning, its tenants have registered higher turnover, despite growing internet sales in the premium sector. We also have some ideas for this asset, but it’s too early to disclose them at this stage. Moreover, our next step depends on how the market develops. At the moment we are also making changes to the Klif Gdynia shopping centre, introducing new brands, including premium brands – such as last year’s opening of the first COS store in the TriCity – while we are continuing to enhance our restaurant offer. A shopping centre has to keep on changing and adjusting itself to customers’ expectations in order to remain successful,” believes Ewa Parys.