The real estate industry has been sitting on valuable data for long, now it’s taking advantage of it. Alexander Rafajlovič, who joined CA Immo as Head of Market Research & Data Analytics in January, talked to Property Forum about the importance of data on the real estate investment market and shared his expectations for the year ahead.

For 2020, CA Immo reported increased operating profit and a positive consolidated net profit. Portfolio growth through own project completions and portfolio acquisitions in combination with the continued high occupancy rate of the investment portfolio (occupancy rate: 95%) led to a further increase in net rental income (+8% compared to the previous year) and the operating result (+14%).

CA Immo has successfully closed the sale of the Bratislava Business Center 1 and 1 Plus office buildings in Bratislava to Wood & Company, a leading investment bank in Central and Eastern Europe. The office complex covers rentable area of around 25,500 sqm.

Based on independent external appraisals, CA Immo expects a property valuation effect of approx. €205 million (€2.07 per share) for the fourth quarter. The increase in value will more than compensate for the valuation loss of €21.5 million (€0.22 per share) booked in the first three quarters of 2020.

CBRE, which has been managing the 22,805 sqm Visionary office building in Prague 7 for CA Immo for two years, has received a mandate to manage the Austrian company’s remaining office portfolio in the Czech Republic.

German-focused investor Aggregate Holdings S.A. confirmed that it may be considering a potential acquisition of a stake in CA Immo, which may also include launching a partial takeover offer for shares in CA Immo in accordance with the provisions of the Austrian Takeover Act.

For another quarter in a row, CA Immo has posted a strong operating result and a clearly positive consolidated net income. The organic growth of the portfolio through own project completions and the continuing high occupancy rate of the investment portfolio (95%) resulted in a further strong increase in net result from rent (+10.5% on the previous year). Despite a positive valuation contribution in the 3rd quarter, the negative revaluation result – as a result of the pandemic and its various effects – continues to have a negative impact on consolidated net income. With the addition of a total of three office buildings in Berlin and Munich (including two own project completions and one portfolio acquisition) and the purchase of an office building in Warsaw, CA Immo continued its portfolio growth in 2020.

CA Immo signed and closed the acquisition of Postepu 14, a Class A office building located in the Mokotow district of Warsaw, from developer HB Reavis. The property totals around 34,500 sqm GLA and is nearly fully let to tenants such as AstraZeneca and Samsung Electronics. The purchase price is approximately €87 million, with annual gross rental income of around €6.5 million, reflecting a 7.5% gross initial yield.

CA Immo successfully placed a €350 million fixed rate senior unsecured green bond with a 5-year maturity and an annual coupon of 1.0%. The issuance was oversubscribed more than 5.4 times at final terms with strong demand by more than 150 investors.

CA Immo has signed and closed the sale of the Zagreb Tower office building to Austrian property company S Immo AG at a 5% premium to H1 2020 book value.