Keegan Viscius has been appointed as the new CEO of real estate group CA Immo, with the move effective as of June 10.  

The Supervisory Board of CA Immo has decided on the reclassification of Hungary to strategically non-core, and simultaneously authorised the Management Board to initiate all relevant activities related to exiting the market, either through platform sale, sub-portfolio sale, or individual asset sales. The company wants to concentrate on its core portfolio, located predominantly in Austria and Germany. Last autumn the firm abandoned another CEE market, Romania.

CA Immo has successfully signed and closed the sale of the Vizivaros Office Center in Budapest. The building is located in the Central Buda office submarket in the western part of Budapest, comprises around 14,200 sqm of total lettable space and was 96% let with annualized gross rental income of around €2.5 million as of 31 December 2022. The buyer is the FLE SICAV FIS real estate fund managed by FLE GmbH.

The Saski Crescent office building, located in Warsaw, at the intersection of Marszłakowska and Królewska streets, will offer more than 15,000 sqm of office space after renovation. The procedure will be completed in 2024. 

CA Immo has concluded 45 lease agreements with a total of nearly 29,000 sqm of office space in Warsaw in the past year, 20% of which in the fourth quarter of 2022. Based on the Group's international net zero initiative, the company has also introduced a green lease initiative in 2022, governing mutual commitment of landlord and tenant to optimize sustainable building operations. Since May 2022, 23 green lease agreements have already been concluded.

Marian Roman has been appointed Managing Director of Europolis Office, the office division of Pavăl Holding. The move came after the holding took over seven Bucharest-based office projects from CA Immo. 

In Q1-Q3 2022, CA Immo was able to increase its recurring earnings (FFO I) by 2.4% year-on-year to €102.5 million in the third quarter. Rental income rose by 2.5% to €158.1 million in the first nine months. The recent portfolio expansions and higher rental income from investment properties thus more than offset the effects from portfolio sales. Consolidated net income rose by 40% to €267.5 million, driven among other things by a strong revaluation result (Q1-Q3 2021: €180.4 million). The positive development in the third quarter was mainly due to the good letting business and the takeover of two project completions into the own portfolio. Following the strong first nine months, CA Immo confirms its earnings forecast for 2022 and expects recurring earnings (FFO I) of more than €125 million.

CA Immo has successfully signed the sale of seven office buildings in Bucharest. As CBRE Romania confirmed to Property Forum, the buyer is Pavăl Holding, the investment vehicle of the Pavăl family which also owns Dedeman, the biggest Romanian DIY chain. This transaction marks CA Immo's exit from the Romanian market.

Since the beginning of the year, five companies have decided to lease a total of 10,000 sqm of office space in Warsaw Spire C, which is almost half of the building. The majority of contracts are renewals of existing leases, two contracts were concluded as green leases. The occupancy rate in Warsaw Spire C is currently over 96%.

Susanne Steinböck, Group Head of Corporate Communications and Sustainability at CA Immo talked to Property Forum about the current state of affairs in the European office market, its attractiveness and energy-related challenges it has to face in the nearest future.