(AOF) – The Board of Directors, on the recommendation of the Governance, Appointments and Compensation Committee, has decided to appoint Nathalie Charles as a non-voting observer with a view to being appointed as a director, at the end of the General meeting of April 25, 2024. She will attend the Compliance and Ethics Committee. A former student of the Ecole Polytechnique, Nathalie Charles, 57, is a Senior Advisor and independent director.
She will bring to the Board of Directors professional expertise of more than 35 years, developed in operational and management functions within French and international groups, specializing in particular in real estate.
Nathalie Charles was recently Deputy Managing Director of BNP Paribas Real Estate (2019-2023) in charge of investment management, overseeing a portfolio of 30 billion in assets under management in Europe.
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Key points
– Fourth largest European real estate company, 1st European office real estate company, 1st integrated player in student residences and 1st Parisian private residential park;
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Assets of €20.1 billion, 80% in offices (including 52% in Paris), 17% in traditional or student residential and the rest in hotels;
– Business model capitalizing on the centrality and scarcity of Parisian assets, high service quality adapted to changing uses and pioneering experience in sustainable innovation;
– Open capital (Ivanhoé Cambridge holding 15.1%, Predica 13.7% and Norges Bank 9.4%), Jérôme Brunel chairing the board of directors of 10 members and Beñat Ortega being general manager;
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Debt under control, rated A–, the LTV debt ratio at 33.7, with €4.6 billion in liquidity and 80% debt coverage until 2028.
Challenges
– Value creation strategy:
– driven by the normalization of occupancy rates, the indexation of rents,
– delivery of 33 projects by 2026, including 2 in 2023 with additional rental potential;
– Open innovation strategy structured by the R&D and Innovation department since 2019:
– ecosystem around sustainable cities and real estate technologies (innovation funds, start-ups, innovative suppliers, etc.),
– YouFirst distribution channel covering all commercial offers;
– CANOP 2030 environmental strategy aimed at carbon neutrality:
– with 2025 intermediate objective: reduction, compared to 2019, of 55% in carbon emissions and 28% in energy consumption,
– via the industrialization of low-carbon solutions, the use of renewable energies and renovations of existing assets,
– all of the debt transformed into “green” loans and long-term remuneration linked to the reduction of the energy bill of buildings;
– Quality of the portfolio at 85% in Paris, Neuilly, Levallois, Boulogne-Billancourt and Issy;
– Pipeline provided of €2.8 billion, at 91% in Paris, its western crescent and La Défense, giving good visibility of future rents by 2025, increasing from 2023;
– Positive impact of rent indexation on inflation.
Challenges
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Evolution of the revalued net assets or ANR, of €183.8, key data to compare with the stock market price, and the occupancy rate of the buildings (92.8%), an indicator of the real estate market, the speed of marketing and stocks;
– After an increase of 4.4% in rental income, 2023 objective of an increase in net income per share from €5.8 to €5.9;
– Dividend of €5.3
Learn more about the Real Estate sector
A demand crisis
According to data from the Federation of Real Estate Developers (FPI), the figures for the third quarter of 2022 continue to be alarming. Sales of new collective housing fell by 12.4% over one year, to 19,006 units. Over the first nine months of 2022, the drop reached 10.2%, to 72,670 units.
Reservations are also plummeting due to the collapse of block sales to social landlords and institutional investors. With interest rates rising, institutional investors are renegotiating or halting operations. First-time buyers are penalized by the rise in rates and the tightening of the Pinel system puts off certain private investors.
Due to the sharp rise in construction costs, the FPI estimates that one in six authorized operations is ultimately not carried out for economic reasons.
Faced with this, prices are still rising: the sales prices of new collective housing increased by 5.9% across France in the third quarter of 2022. Ile-de-France is an exception, with a decrease of 0. 9%.