After the first wave of the pandemic, continuous communication with tenants has proven to be more important than ever and helped landlords reach solutions in this difficult and unpredictable situation. Yovav Carmi, President of GTC Group’s Management Board and Robert Snow, Member of GTC Group’s Management Board and Chairman of GTC Hungary talked to us about COVID-19’s potential implications for the commercial real estate market and shared their expectations for the future.

GTC’s profit before tax and fair value adjustments increased to €21 million in Q3 2020 from €15 million in Q3 2019. For the January-September period, 2020’s results were slightly weaker at €52 million compared to the previous year’s €53 million.

A German rating agency Scope Ratings has assigned a first-time issuer rating of BBB-/Stable to Globe Trade Centre S.A. and its subsidiary GTC Real Estate Development Hungary Zrt. GTC Group also announces green bonds issuance within the framework of the Bond Funding for Growth Scheme launched by the National Bank of Hungary. The senior unsecured debt rating is BBB-. The outlook on the ratings is stable.

GTC has sold Spiral, a Class A office building located in Budapest, Hungary. The sale will generate €41 million of free cash.

GTC has expanded its portfolio of green projects. The Matrix A and Matrix B office buildings in Zagreb have both been granted LEED Platinum certifications. Thus, 80% of all GTC’s office properties now bear an eco-friendly label. 

GTC Supervisory Board has appointed Mr. Yovav Carmi to the position of the President of the Management Board of GTC.

GTC has appointed Grzegorz Strutyński to the position of Country Manager Poland. He will be responsible for all activities taken by the company in Poland.

GTC’s rental and service revenues decreased by €3 million to €79 million in H1 2020. The decrease mainly resulted from a decrease in income of approximately €8 million due to rent relief imposed by governments during the lockdown of shopping malls and rent concessions and discounts provided by the Group to the retail tenants across the portfolio due to the COVID-19 outbreak combined with a decrease on rental revenues following the sale of GTC White House in the third quarter of 2019 and Neptun Office Center in the fourth quarter of 2019 of €3 million. The decrease was partially offset by an increase in the rental revenues due to completion of Ada Mall, Green Heart, ABC I and Matrix A.

GTC’s rental income suffered a €2 million decrease due to rent and service charge relief imposed by governments during the lockdown of shopping malls. Still, total rental and service charge revenues increased to €41 million in Q1 2020 from €39 million in Q1 2019. GTC presented its financial results at the end of Q1 2020.

GTC Bulgaria has informed that the varied tenant portfolio of Advance Business Center II will be enriched by Commerzbank. One of the largest German banks will lease over 3,500 sqm GLA of office space starting 1st December 2020. The pre-leasing agreement was consulted by CBRE. Advance Business Center II is under construction phase and due for delivery in Q4 2020.