Companies from the BPO sector may be reducing their offices in North America or Western Europe, but they are taking up more space in CEE at the same time. Yovav Carmi, CEO of GTC talked to Property Forum about issuing green bonds, ESG strategies and the BPO industry.

With sustainable electricity running through 16 office buildings, including Aeropark Business Centre in Warsaw and Korona Office Complex in Cracow, GTC aims to reduce its carbon footprint and commits to ensure affordable and clean energy in all its facilities, as announced recently in the Group’s 2020 ESG report.

Globe Trade Centre has successfully issued a debut unsecured green bond for €500 million. The bonds, bearing a coupon of 2.25% p.a., received a strong reception from the broad European fixed-income investor universe and were several times oversubscribed with a peak order book in excess of €1.4 billion.

Globe Trade Center announced today that it has been assigned an investment grade rating of BBB- with a Stable Outlook by Fitch Ratings and Ba1 with Positive Outlook rating by Moody’s Investors Service.

Globe Trade Center has presented its first-ever ESG report, summarizing the group’s achievements during 25 years across its six markets. The 2020 report presents data on GTC’s engagement in sustainable development, responsible construction and asset management, collaboration with local communities and responding to stakeholders’ expectations. GTC is the first among commercial developers to present an ESG report on the CEE market.

Yovav Carmi, CEO and Ariel Ferstman, CFO of Globe Trade Centre talked to Property Forum about GTC`s recent acquisitions, the sale of the Serbian office portfolio, coping with COVID-19's long-term effects and their new investment strategy.

Globe Trade Centre has decided to sell its Belgrade office portfolio to the Hungarian investor Indotek Group. The proposed acquisition price is €267.6 million, exceeding the book value of GTC’s Serbia portfolio as of 31 December 2020. The agreement will cover the sale of 11 buildings within 5 business parks of a total 122,175 sqm GLA with high occupancy rates, located in the New Belgrade district. Once completed in Q3 2021, the sale will become one of the largest real estate transactions in the last 5 years on the CEE market.

GTC has appointed Eszter Salamon to the position of Transactions Director. Her in-depth sector knowledge and experience in real estate and financial operations will boost GTC’s optimization and expansion goals. As Transactions Director, Eszter Salamon will be responsible for real estate transactions across all GTC markets as the investor plans completion of large-scale transactions in various markets in the upcoming period.

GTC’s rental and service revenues decreased by €3.8 million to €37 million in Q1 2021 from €41 million in Q1 2020. Profit before tax and fair value adjustments for Q1 2021 reached €15 million, up from €13 million in Q1 2020. The company published its financial results for Q1 2021.

GTC has decided to boost its Hungarian portfolio again by investing €160 million in the acquisition of two office properties in Budapest, the Ericsson HQ and the Siemens Evosoft HQ, both developed by local company Wing.