MIPIM HORIZONS Review

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MIPIM HORIZONS Review
magazine
December 2008
Wassim Aboul Naja, director, Portofolio & Followup Department, Islamic Corporation for the
Development of the Private Sector (Saudi Arabia)
Nabil El Kerdoudi El Koulali, member
of the board, Al Omrane
Development Holding (Morocco)
Joao Batista Crestana, president, Secovi (Brazil)
Mohamed Mezghani,
head of MENA Office, UITP (Belgium)
Thierry Renault, deputy managing Director, Reed MIDEM (France), Luis Fernando
Correa-Bahamon, president FIABCI World (Colombia), Alfredo Cotait Neto, municipal secretary for Internal Affairs, Sao Paulo City Hall (Brazil)
www.mipimhorizons.com
Bernardo Retana, senior associate,
QInvest (Qatar)
Vladimir Resin, first deputy of the Mayor of
Moscow City (Russia)
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••• CONTENTS
MIPIM Horizons
Review magazine
January 2009
Director of Publications: Paul Zilk
Editorial Department
Editor in Chief: Paul Strohm •
Reporter: Mark Moore • Sub Editors:
Joanna Stephens • Proof Reader:
Debbie Lincoln • Technical Editor in
Chief: Herve Traisnel • Deputy
Technical Editor in Chief: Frederic
Beauseigneur • Graphic Designers:
Cecile Kizlik, Carole Peres • Editorial
Management: Boutique Editions
Production Department
Content Director: Jean-Marc Andre •
Publications Production and
Development Manager: Martin
Screpel • Publishing Co-ordinators:
Amrane Lamiri, Bruno Piauger •
Production Assistant: Emilie
Lambert, David Le Chapelain •
Production Assistant, Cannes Office:
Eric Laurent
Administrative & Advertising
Department
Deputy Managing Director: Thierry
Renault • MIPIM Horizons Director:
Nathalie Depetro • Sales Director:
Beatrice Gravier • Sales Director:
Severine Menut • Sales Director
/Investors, Corporate End-Users:
Aude Fraisse • Sales Manager /
Buyers: Flavie Appeyroux • Sales
Manager: Dimitri Gillouard • Sales
Manager: Rodolfo Garcia • Sales
Executive: Geraud de Dieuleveult •
UK Managing Director: Peter
Rhodes • Senior Vice President
(USA): Patric Dolan • Programme
Director: Cathie Laven •
Programme Coordinator: Maud
Annonier • Marketing Director:
Alain Courbon
Published by Reed MIDEM — BP 572
— 11, rue du Colonel Pierre Avia —
75726 Paris Cedex 15, France —
Contents © 2009, Reed MIDEM
Market Publications — Publication
registered 1st quarter 2009
www.mipimhorizons.com
OVERVIEW
3-5
KEYNOTES AND CONFERENCES
6-7
INVESTMENT AND INVESTORS
8
NORTH AFRICA AND TURKEY
9
LATIN AMERICA
10
EASTERN EUROPE AND RUSSIA
11
HOTELS AND TOURISM
12
RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT
13
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••• OVERVIEW
MIPIM Horizons opens door to world’s
high-growth, high-potential markets
REAL-estate professionals working in the world’s fast-growing
economies met in Cannes in early
December 2008 for the first ever
MIPIM Horizons.
Created by Reed MIDEM — the
company behind the MIPIM and
MIPIM Asia business-to-business
property shows — the three-day
event was designed as a showcase
and networking forum for the realestate markets in high-potential,
fast-growing countries. The emphasis among exhibitors was on
residential, and hotel and tourism
property developments.
There were 62 countries represented at MIPIM Horizons. About
6,000 sq m of space was occupied
by exhibitors from North Africa and
the Middle East (40%), Eastern Europe and Russia (50%), and Latin
America (10%).
Over 1,200 participants attended the
event and, crucially, among them
were some 251 investors, hotel
groups and end users.
“MIPIM Horizons was created in re-
Talking business on Onapar’s stand
sponse to demand from clients attending MIPIM — both international
investors and potential exhibitors
— for an event that focused on the
special characteristics of real es-
Reed MIDEM CEO Paul Zilk cuts the tape to officially open the first
MIPIM Horizons. With him are colleagues (left to right) Thierry Renault and Nathalie Depetro; Mayor of Cannes Bernard Brochand;
Branimir Gvozdenovic, minister of economic development of the
government of Montenegro; and Mike Rusbridge, chairman and
CEO of Reed Exhibitions
tate in fast-growing markets in
high-growth countries and regions,
such as Latin America, Eastern Europe, Russia, Central Asia, the
Middle East and Africa,” said
MIPIM Horizons’ director, Nathalie
Depetro. “Even at this time of international financial unrest, it was
clear that there is still demand
from the investment sector.”
COMMENTING on the MIPIM
Horizons Leadership Summit,
Vladimir Resin (pictured),
first deputy Mayor of Moscow
City, said: “A number of very
important questions were
discussed. For example, we
looked at the development of
cities, social housing and
ecology. We think Moscow
has experience in all these
areas — especially in socialhousing construction — and
can share that experience
with other countries. MIPIM
Horizons was a very good exhibition and I’m sure it will go
on to develop still further.”
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••• OVERVIEW
Three days of listening, learning and earning
MIPIM Horizons’ packed programme of events was designed to
ensure that both exhibitors and
potential investors maximised
their networking opportunities and
had the chance to share knowledge and best practice.
To facilitate the match-making
process, a series of intimate workshops were organised on stands.
These enabled exhibitors to explain their projects in detail to
small groups of people with a
known interest in a particular area.
Similarly, a series of guided tours
enabled investors to take in relevant stands quickly and efficiently.
“This was helpful to both investors,
who did not necessarily want to be
‘under the spotlight’, and exhibitors, not all of whom are used
to participating at such trade
shows,” said MIPIM Horizons’ director, Nathalie Depetro.
Conferences featuring some of the
world’s leading real-estate experts
explored the markets in each key
region. Meanwhile, the Speed
Matching sessions drew capacity
audiences with their sevenminute, quick-fire presentations
of selected projects.
An invitation-only Leadership
Summit explored the subject of
sustainable urban management
from a number of perspectives. “I
am convinced that it is very important to bring together people from
different sectors, such as investment, development and local
government, with environmental
experts to discuss the challenges
faced by emerging regions,” Depetro added.
Listen to the experts: a packed programme of conferences helped make
MIPIM Horizons a true learning experience
On-the-stand workshops, such as Montenegro’s attracted focused audiences
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Speed Matching sessions filled the conference room
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••• OVERVIEW
“It’s a time of opportunity”
DESPITE a bleak global financial
scene, many positive messages
emerged from MIPIM Horizons —
not least because many of the
event’s target markets have been
somewhat insulated from the
downturn afflicting the world’s
more mature economies.
Warwick International Hotels’ director of group development,
Jean-Francois Garnier, told the
Review why he was feeling “very
positive about MIPIM Horizons”.
“It’s a time of opportunity,” he said.
“When I arrived in Cannes, I
thought that, because financing is
tough, MIPIM Horizons might be
a dead end. But many of the coun-
tries attending the event were a little bit outside the crisis. For
instance, Morocco has its own financial system that is not really
linked to the international one.
Firstly, their currency is not very
convertible and, secondly, their
banks are not allowed by their central bank to do just what they want,
such as investment-bank financing. In general, local banks in
emerging markets are mainly there
to help develop the country. Talking to bankers during MIPIM
Horizons, ‘sub prime’ doesn’t appear to exist in many emerging
countries.
“I am now convinced that financing
is not the potential deal breaker,
People can get financing, which is
very interesting. Emerging-market
banking systems appear to be for
financing imports and exports, and
for retail banking — in other words,
classical banking activities.
“If you talk to Latvians, it’s the
same story. When you ask them
about financing, they’ll tell you
there’s a local bank funding the
project. We are not talking about
billions, of course, but we are talking about reasonable amounts of
money.
“So yes, I’m very positive about this
event. And, if I’m asked, I’ll be back
again next year.”
Jean-Francois Garnier: “I am now
convinced that financing is not the
potential deal breaker”
Talking business in the VIP Lounge
Face-to-face: the Opening Night Party gets introductions off to a flying start
The Participants’ lounge provided numerous networking opportunities
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••• KEYNOTES AND CONFERENCES
• TOURISM represents between 15%-20% of
GDP in Balkan countries such as Bulgaria,
Croatia and Montenegro — comparable with
Make ready for megacities
Greece and more than for Turkey. Moreover,
growth projections for the next 10 years are
strong.
Debating the future of tourism in the
Balkans was Alfa Developments’ Elitsa
Panayotova, International Hotels Group’s
Peter Vermeer, EBRD’s Thibault Dutreix and
Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank’s Olga Kiendler.
Moderating the session was George Dutchev
of Property Xpress.
Frauke Kraas: attention must be
paid to negotiation processes
The Balkans’ tourism growth has been
assisted by the emergence of new sectors,
such as spas, health, cultural and adventure
tourism. However, significant issues have
hampered the sector’s development, notably
under-investment in infrastructure and the
region’s short summer season. Despite
these drawbacks, the panel said the
Balkans’ future as a tourist destination
looks promising and has been improved by
the prospect of EU membership.
URBANISATION trends are putting
emerging economies in the spotlight. About 50% of the world’s
population already lives in cities.
By 2050, there will be 60 megacities worldwide, containing
600 million people.
Frauke Kraas, director of the geography department at the
University of Cologne, Germany,
explored the implications of this
trend in her keynote speech,
Megacities And Global Change:
Key Challenges, Action Models
And Strategic Solutions.
According to Kraas, mega-urban
areas create substantial opportunities.
Nevertheless,
the
challenges are also substantial —
not least the economic, social and
cultural changes. Sustainability issues are a common focus,
particularly in terms of resources.
However, Kraas observed that
fresh attention must be paid to negotiation processes. The increased
level of ‘informality’ found in
megacities means they are more
difficult to govern. The key questions that need to be addressed,
Kraas said, include “how to bring
which kinds of people into the
process” of government.
Kraas noted that our present understanding is that “the
government” will take care of
things. “But we have to change
this perspective, because more
stakeholders have emerged in recent years and we have to include
them in the process,” she said.
Kraas added that we must focus
on processes rather than on urban form or structure: “Our
understanding is mainly based
upon perceptions of cities that
emerged in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries. Megacities
go beyond that, so we need to
collaborate across institutional
borders.”
• UKRAINE's real-estate markets were the
subject of a discussion
between two experts on the subject:
Jurgen Fruhschutz, publisher of Commercial
Property, and Julian Ries, head of realestate practice at Beiten Burkhardt.
Fruhschutz reported that GDP growth in
Ukraine has stood at around 6% a year for
the past five years, while retail sales growth
in 2008 was 25%. “People forget sometimes
that Ukraine is actually the largest European
nation,” he added. “Demand has been pent
up and is now being released.”
Ries pointed out that the legal basis for
foreign investment in Ukraine’s real estate is
improving all the time. “Five to eight years is
now the average lease time,” he said. “And
leases are set at 25 years, which developers
tend to prefer.”
Investors hear it for Argentina
IN ANSWER to the question,
Why Invest In Argentina?, a
packed MIPIM Horizons auditorium heard that real estate is the
second most important economic sector in Argentina.
Opportunities abound in transport, waste disposal, water and
housing, where there is a gap of
some 300,000 dwellings. Argentina also has an emerging
international third-age market.
The panel, which consisted of
Francisco Cabrera, minister of
economic development for the
Dr Marcelo Elizondo takes the stand with (left to right), moderator Guy
Perry, Francisco Cabrera and Eduardo Gutierrez
City of Buenos Aires, Fundacion
ExportAr’s Marcelo Elizondo and
Grupo Farallon’s Eduardo
Gutierrez, also told delegates
that, while vacancy rates are low
in Argentina’s office stock, there
remains a shortage of industrial
space. It is estimated that
around 250,000 sq m of modern
space is needed.
Brazil on course to become world’s playground
AT THE conference Brazil: The
Next Playground Of The World?,
Thompson and Knight’s Ivan
Tauil, Itacare Capital’s Pedro de
Miranda and the Ministry of
Tourism of Brazil’s Hermano Car-
valho, discussed the prospects
for tourism in Latin America’s
largest country.
The panel, moderated by HVS’
Diogo Canteras, told delegates
that Brazil’s prospects changed
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dramatically when Europeans
started to buy second homes in the
country. Brazil’s abundant and under-exploited land meant that, at
one time, no less than 450 developments were listed in the
northeast of the country. That figure now stands at a more realistic
level. While Brazil’s tourism sector has been hit by the world
economic crisis, it still represents
good value for money.
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••• KEYNOTES AND CONFERENCES
Top players debate sustainability issues
at MIPIM Horizons Leadership summit
Leadership Summit: Getting to the heart of issues in emerging markets
AT THE Leadership Summit, an
invitation-only event held during
MIPIM Horizons, a group of political leaders, investors, owners,
occupiers, developers and consultants came together at the
Majestic hotel to discuss the central sustainability issues of real
estate development in the world's
high-potential property markets.
The summit was organised
around several ‘round tables’,
each consisting of 10 participants. Each round table debated
a different topic — and each discussion was led by a prominent
figure in the field in question. After intense debate, each round
table was canvassed for its opinion by Maider Ferras, founder of
France’s Rangoli Consulting.
The discussion on round-table one
was titled Innovations In PublicPrivate Partnership. It was chaired
by Michael Donovan of the OECD’s
urban development programme,
regional competitiveness and governance. Round-table two,
meanwhile, examined transport
and land development and was
chaired by Mohamed Mezghani,
head of the Middle East and North
Africa office of the International
Association of Public Transport
(UITP).
On round-table three, the talk
centred on ensuring the provision of social housing in
fast-growing markets. The
chairman was Ian Perry, chief
executive of Harvest Housing
Group. Round-table four debated real-estate finance in
emerging markets, under the
guidance of Jonathan Price,
president of FIABCI UK. And
round-table five, chaired by Nick
Axford senior director at CBRE,
discussed ways in which to keep
the ‘sustainability train’ on track.
Why canny investors are Morocco-bound
MOROCCO: A New Eldorado For
Real Estate Investment? was the
title of a conference moderated
by architect Selma Zerhouni, associate director of Archimedia,
featuring panelists Nabil El Kerdoudi El Koulali of Al Omrane
Development, Omar Essakalli of
Mandarine Group and Christian
Vande Craen of Thomas & Piron
International.
The main message from the
speakers was that there are
huge opportunities for investors
— both domestic and foreign —
in Morocco. No toxic assets are
held by Moroccan banks, meaning that lending and finance are
highly unlikely to become a
problem for investors in the
country. Morocco’s investment
incentives include five years’ exemption from residence tax on
new buildings.
• REIDIN chief executive Ahmet Kayhan,
based in the UAE, moderated the session
on the next developments for the Gulf
countries. Speakers included Nazih Chentouf of Aberdeen Property Investors, Iseeb
Rehman of Sherwoods Property Consultants and Andy McTiernan of Property World
magazine.
The panel agreed that Gulf region’s economic future definitely lies in the ground —
but in real estate, not in oil. “Investment in
real estate is growing much faster in the
emerging markets than it is in the developed
markets,” Kayhan said.
• L'AUC managing partner, architect and
town-planner Djamel Klouche gave a
keynote speech on the design strategies appropriate to fast-growing territories.
Klouche used three examples, the first of
which was the Tour Signal in La Defense,
Paris. A key element here, Klouche said,
was the recovery of rainwater. He added
that 60% of the project’s non-drinking water is recycled.
• RANGOLI Consulting’s Maider Ferras, coorganiser of the MIPIM Horizons Leadership
Summit, said that integrating sustainable
solutions is more straightforward when considering the plans of economies with high
growth potential because so many are starting with a "blank sheet of paper".
"What came out of the leadership summit is
that they all are thinking about sustainable
solutions, but all are looking at it from a different perspective, whether that is
geographical, political or business."
"The Leadership Summit was all about
exchanging thoughts and experience from
each of these different angles," Ferras
added.
One of Rangoli’s next challenges is consulting on the Global City Forum, which is to run
in Abu Dhabi in April.
Islamic finance explored in ICD keynote
Wassim Aboul-Naja
WEDNESDAY afternoon’s keynote
address focused on the history of
Islamic finance, or finance that is
compliant with Sharia law.
The address was given by Wassim Aboul-Naja, director of the
portfolio and follow-up department at Saudi Arabia’s Islamic
Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector
(ICD), who explained that the Islamic Development Bank (IDB)
is involved in public-sector Islamic financing, while the ICD
concerns itself with the private
sector.
“The ICD looks to research to
understand the available opportunities in the private sector that
will create Islamic financial
products and improve economic
growth in the 47 member countries of the ICD and IDB,”
Aboul-Naja said.
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••• INVESTMENT AND INVESTORS
• PROFIMEX was at
MIPIM Horizons to
search for real-estate investments in
the Balkans. “As
global investors, we
are looking for new
concepts in new
markets,” said El
Rosenheim, managProfimex’s El
ing director of the
Rosenheim: “new
Israel-based comconcepts in new
pany. “We are also
markets”
seeking local partners in countries in which we do not yet
operate.”
According to Rosenheim, the Balkans are
currently a focus for Profimex, as is Russia
and Latin America. “I don’t think any market
is immune from what is happening globally,”
he added. “Strategically, we are looking to
expand our investments to cover more
countries and diversify our portfolio.”
• SEB INVESTMENTS, a branch of
the Nordic asset
management and
banking giant SEB,
was at MIPIM Horizons to track the
international market, according to
managing director,
SEB Investments’
Choy-Soon Chua.
Choy-Soon Chua:
Chua said it is vital
“an open mind”
to keep a watching
brief on real estate in the emerging territories, especially in the current climate, where
the cold economic winds are likely to have
less impact. “One of the keys to business
success is an open mind,” he added.
• ABERDEEN PROPERTY INVESTORS
was in Cannes to
meet indirect investors interested
in Russia, according
to Magnus Weikert,
the company’s
Eastern European
head of fundraising.
Aberdeen Property
Russia is the only
Investors’ Magnus
Weikert: “in Russia step that Aberdeen
has taken into Eastfor the long term”
ern Europe so far,
Weikert added: “Aberdeen has gone into
Russia for the long term. The market has
changed but that has thrown up a number of
opportunities that we didn’t have a year
back. Russia will be back on track — it’s
just a matter of timing now.”
Investors also do the talking at
new Speed Matching session
CBRE’s Tonia Vera presented the
Bahia Principe Residential Golf
complex in Mexico
THREE Speed Matching sessions were staged during MIPIM
Horizons.The sessions follow
the same lines as speed dating,
the idea being to match up funds
and projects after a sevenminute presentation.
It was standing-room only at all
the Speed Matching events, but
never more so than at the investors’ session, which featured
presentations from Aberdeen
Property Investors’ Magnus
Weikert, Europolis Real Estate
Asset Management’s Bernhard
Mayer, Real Estate Options’
Michael Teich, Mosaic Property’s
Chris Naylor and Balkimo’s
Marin Le Corre.
Chris Naylor reported that, while
Mosaic is focused on 14 EU accession countries, in the current
climate it is drawing back to the
core territories of Central Europe: Poland, the Czech Republic
and Latvia. The project Speed
Matching sessions included presentations from Romania’s
Impact Developer & Contractor,
Mexico’s Del Sol Promocion y
Desarollo and Grupo Pinero,
Montenegro’s Gintasmont Investment Construction and
Trade and HLT Fond, Morocco’s
Omnidior, Brazil’s In-Vi and Bulgaria’s Alfa Developments.
Substantial funds back Balkimo’s
future plans to expand
MARIN Le Corre, general
manager of Albania’s largest
real estate agency and investor Balkimo, took to the
stage during the MIPIM Horizons Speed Matching sessions
to profile his company’s activities and strategies.
“We are pleased to report that
we have already received several million in financial
commitment to our fund,” Le
Corre said. “We believe that
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Speed Matching is an effective
concept that corresponds exactly to what experienced
investors are looking for.”
He added: “MIPIM Horizons
also allows us to meet potential
operators interested in the region in which we are investing.”
Having initially specialised in
Albania, Balkimo has now
widened its scope to include
Montenegro, Serbia and
Macedonia.
STUART REID (pictured) of the
Berlin office of the Europeanwide fund management
business Rockspring Property
Asset Management and his
colleague, Budapest-based
Simon Clarke, were at Horizons to “test” the show,
particularly from the Central
European perspective. Reid is
SEE Property Fund’s Marin Le Corre:
“several million” committed
adopting a wait-and-see approach to the performance of
Central European real estate
in the current downturn. “It’s
the first time that the market
has gone through this phase,”
he said. “You can’t do anything
but monitor the situation because it has not happened
before.”
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••• NORTH AFRICA AND TURKEY
International future on the horizon
for Morocco’s biggest developer
MOROCCO’s biggest developer,
Addoha Group, was at MIPIM
Horizons to raise its international profile.
“We are the biggest developer in
the country, with over 265,000
properties in our portfolio, either
completed or under way,” said
Addoha Group marketing director, Lamia Hannaoui. “We have
“WE ARE a commercial developer in Morocco,” said Saad
Bengelloun, director general of
Neil Investment. “We specialise
in shopping centres under the
brand marque City Center. We
are currently developing the
65 ongoing projects, including
some seriously big ones in 12
major cities in Morocco:
Casablanca, Agadir, Fes, Kenitra, Marrakesh, Meknes, Rabat,
Saidia, Sale, Tamesna, Tangier
and Tetouan.”
A presence at MIPIM Horizons
gave the group a platform
from which to showcase its
5,000 sq m City Center Meknes
and the 9,500 sq m City Center
Ryad, but we also develop offices and residential projects,
as well as tourist complexes.”
Neil Investment has also recently launched a company,
major projects, Hannaoui said.
He added: “Although Addoha
is 20 years old, we have historically had a low profile. Now,
we want to shout about ourselves internationally. We are
looking to touch base with the
world’s investors and we
would like them to get to know
us better.”
Skhirat Invest, specifically to
develop industrial parks and logistics hubs. “We came to
MIPIM Horizons to look for retailers for our centres, as well
as new partners and opportunities,” Bengelloun added.
Building on sand, sun and the Sahara Tunisia
puts Lella H’lima village on tourism map
TUNISIAN investor and developer Sodet Sud (Societe d’Etudes
et de Developpement Touristique
du Sud) was at MIPIM Horizons
to showcase its latest project —
the Lella H’lima tourist destination and residential village.
The project is located at Zarzis,
on the Mediterranean seaboard,
500 km southeast of the capital
Tunis. With an initial investment
of €300m, Lella H’lima will take
up about 4 km of coastline and
occupy 110 ha. The project includes a water park, green
spaces, villas, hotels, apartments, a medina and a ribat (an
Arab Andalucian-style village and
a local-style fortress). It will also
feature a range of shops, entertainment and leisure facilities.
“The village will combine Saharan and seaside tourism,” said
Atia Lorayedh, director general
of Sodet Sud. “It will be able to
accommodate up to 20,000 residents and tourists.”
Valyans: one-stop real-estate shop
• VALYANS CONSULTING, the Moroccan
one-stop shop for real-estate consultancy,
was at MIPIM Horizons to “put projects and
people together”, according to the company’s associate director, Sandrine Noury.
“We came to MIPIM as a delegate, which
made the case to come to MIPIM Horizons
as an exhibitor,” Noury said. “We offer market analysis, design and project sizing,
feasibility studies, investor canvassing and
strategic development.”
• ACTIF INVEST was in Cannes on a profileraising mission, according to the company’s
portfolio manager Hind Najat. “We wanted to
showcase our projects and reinforce our
contacts with existing clients, while forging
bonds with new clients.” He added that the
Moroccan real-estate investor and fund
manager was particularly keen to talk to
potential occupiers for office projects and
retailers for commercial centres.
Actif Invest is active in Morocco via two
funds: Actif Capital 1 (AC1) and Maghreb
Siyaha Fund (MSF). “AC1, which is targeted
at commercial projects, is the first real-estate fund to be launched in Morocco,” Najah
said, adding that MSF is aimed at a wide
spectrum of tourism projects.
• PROFAC-EKO’s vice-chairman of the board,
Kenan Saral, was at MIPIM Horizons to further his company’s ambition “to become the
leader in facilities management in Turkey,
followed by the Gulf and the Middle East”.
Seral added: “We came to MIPIM Horizons
to meet with companies operating in
those regions, as well as with foreign
companies aiming to make a start in the
Turkish market.”
ProFac-Eko — a joint venture between
Canada-based SNC-Lavalin’s ProFac arm
and the Turkish Suzer Group’s EKO subsidiary — offers facility, property and
project management services. “We deliver
the expertise, efficiency and reliability a
company needs to realise the benefits of
outsourcing operations and maintenance,”
Saral said.
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••• LATIN AMERICA
• TIERRAS EN PATAGONIA was at MIPIM Horizons to promote its high-altitude expertise.
“There are many developers here,” said the
agency’s associate director, Gaston Blousson. “And they all develop the coast. We are
the only ones who develop mountains.”
Tierras en Patagonia promotes development
opportunities in the five provinces that constitute the region of Patagonia. Blousson
noted that Argentina has some of the highest mountains in the world — and many of
them are in Patagonia.
According to Blousson, the holidays of the
21st century are more likely to involve activities other than lying on a beach: “We are
now developing ski resorts in Patagonia.
These will be the only places in the southern
hemisphere that offer state-of-the-art skiing
in state-of-the-art resorts. In this century, it
will become normal to ski in July and August
— south of the equator.”
• IN-VI DO BRASIL’s president and founding
partner, Guy Perry, had two key objectives in
Cannes: to find new opportunities for his
company’s masterplanning services and to
source financing for projects in Brazil.
“MIPIM Horizons has been a very useful
event,” Perry said. “It is small compared to
MIPIM, but the advantage of that has been
more time to meet people. There are some
serious investors here and we have been
able to hold some good discussions, which
is all you can expect at this stage.”
IN-VI Brazil’s
Guy Perry:
“There are
some serious
investors here”
• GRUPO MARIANA FAMILY OF RESORTS’
chairman, Kevin Fleming, was at MIPIM
Horizons to promote awareness of
Nicaragua. Despite having experienced 18%
per annum growth and a booming property
market for several years, the country has
started from such a low base that it is still
the best value-for-money proposition in
Central America, Fleming said.
In Cannes to network with potential capitalfunding partners, Fleming was also
showcasing the 1,300-unit Seaside Mariana
resort and the charitable organisation, Fundacion Mariana, which is helping to improve
Nicaraguan lives through real estate.
Fleming was optimistic about achieving his
goals: “MIPIM shows tend to attract serious people searching for serious business partners.”
Life is more than a beach for
investors in Brazilian tourism
BRAZIL’s Hermano Carvalho, director of the Ministry of Tourism,
was clear about his reasons for attending MIPIM Horizons: “Our first
objective is to attract investors.”
He added: “We are talking to the
world about tourism, we are
making announcements and
have meetings planned. We have
a strong economy — the biggest
in Latin America — and we have
the resources, money and environment. We need to tell people
what we want, need and expect.”
Carvalho highlighted Brazil’s
tourism options, which range
from eco-tourism in the Amazon
basin to beach tourism on the
country’s north-east coast. He
also noted that there are options
for all sizes of investor.
Carvalho explained that Brazil’s
president ‘Lula’ (Luiz Inacio Lula
da Silva) made tourism a national priority in 2003. Now,
Brazil’s hosting of the FIFA
Hermano Carvalho (left): “Our first objective is to attract investors”
World Cup in 2014 is also attracting massive investment.
The Ministry was partnering ADIT
Nordeste, the association for real
estate and tourism development
in north-east Brazil, in trying to
attract tourism investment
through MIPIM Horizons.
Carvalho said that, despite the
current world crisis, Brazil expects
its economic growth to continue,
albeit at 3.0%-3.5% per annum
rather than the 5.0% projected
before the financial downturn.
Meeting and greeting the exhibitors
PART OF the MIPIM Horizons
experience was a series of Meet
The Exhibitors tours of the exhi-
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bition hall. The first tour of the
event saw Reed MIDEM’s international sales manager, Rodolfo
Garcia, conduct a group of delegates through a series of Latin
American stands. The idea was
to network, forge contacts and
give exhibitors a chance to talk
through their priority projects.
The business delegates in Garcia’s party included Laercio
Lemos De Souza of the Brazilian
Ministry of Tourism, CBRE
Spain’s Tonia Salas Spain, Grupo
Pinero’s Jaime Charcartegui,
Maison Buenos Aires’ Felix Keckeis and Jadwiga Wisniowska of
Poland's KCI Centrum Zablocie.
The Mexico stand:
targeted tours increased
exhibitor exposure
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••• EASTERN EUROPE AND RUSSIA
Montenegrin minister pledges to
keep foreign investors interested
Montenegro’s Branimir
Gvozdenovic: “Investment is the
most important thing”
MONTENEGRO has the highest
level of foreign direct investment
(FDI) in Europe and is one of the
fastest growing tourist destinations, according to Branimir
Gvozdenovic, the country’s economic development minister.
Montenegro adopted the euro
five years ago — a move, Gvozdenovic said, that has “helped us
a lot in getting things done in the
proper way in our economy. We
are the only country outside the
Eurozone using the euro as our
official currency.”
He added: “Investment is the
most important thing. I think we
have improved a lot with respect
to speed of adoption of masterplans, building permits, etc. We
want to maintain our position in
these turbulent circumstances.
We need to be active and more
competitive. We need to change
the laws — and we need to
change and improve our architecture and infrastructure. We
have to keep the interest of foreign investors.”
Gvozdenovic believes that this can
be achieved only with the help of
prestigious events such as MIPIM
Horizons.
At a series of presentations on the
Montenegro stand, the ministry
showcased a range of infrastructure developments, including
highway and energy improvements, and the plans for Velika
Plaza, the 13 km-long beach resort that formed the centrepiece
of the Montenegrin stand.
• BECAR REALTY is “feeling well” in the current crisis, according to Natalia Galitsina,
head of the Russia-based asset management company’s legal department. Galitsina
said that, in the present climate, companies
need more management than development
and sales skills. MIPIM Horizons was an
ideal opportunity to showcase the company’s services, she added.
Becar works throughout the Russian Federation, principally in the ‘Millioniki’, or the 11
largest cities outside Moscow and St Petersburg that have a population exceeding
one million.
Galitsina was impressed with the quality of
the MIPIM Horizons participants: “I would
say there are mostly CEOs and senior managers here.”
Becar Realty: “feeling well”
Romania’s Regatta pushes out the boat
ROMANIAN real-estate consultant Regatta co-hosted its MIPIM
Horizons stand with two Belfastbased UK developers, Blackpearl
and Sheridan.
Luciana Petrescu, Regatta’s
communications manager, said:
“We consult in every real estatesector in Romania. One of our
major activities is attracting investors to the country and
assisting them to set up there.
We came to MIPIM Horizons to
spread the word about opportunities in Romania.”
Blackpearl Property’s chairman,
Michael Bell, added: “Did you
know that, at 93%, Bucharest has
the highest home ownership in
the world? There is great demand
and short supply. That’s why we
went to Romania. We focus on
markets we believe offer sustain-
able demand for quality homes
and commercial properties.”
Sheridan Group’s chief executive, Peter Holmes, said that
MIPIM Horizons had attracted “a
lot of serious people”.
He added: “It fully met our expectations in terms of potential
business leads and quality contacts. It was a good idea to
provide a focus for emerging
markets.”
• KAZKOMMERTS INVEST REAL
ESTATE was in Cannes to target investors
and developers interested in expanding into
Kazakhstan and needing a local partner.
The Almaty-based company’s investor-relations manager, Kuralay Sakanova, said the
provision of infrastructure per capita in
Kazakhstan may be low, but the country is
rich in natural resources and has a stable
and transparent economy.
“The MIPIM Horizons catchline, ‘Be a pioneer today and a leader tomorrow’, could
have been written with Kazakhstan in
mind,” Sakanova added.
• UNIVERSAL DEVELOPMENT CONSTRUCTION HOLDINGS (UDC) used MIPIM Horizons
to spread the message that Ukraine is
changing rapidly and offers numerous opportunities to foreign investors. For
example, the country is readying itself for
the 2012 European Football Championships,
which it shares with Poland, and investment
is now under way prior to the event.
UDC’s CEO Leonid Bogdanov said that MIPIM
Horizons has plenty of potential. “The idea
of an exhibition devoted to emerging markets makes sense, as there are a different
set of investors involved,” he said.
Regatta: spreading the word
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••• HOTELS AND TOURISM
• OMNIDIOR — the development arm of
multi-tentacled Moroccan company Onapar,
whose activities also include hotel, villa and
holiday-resort projects — was seeking new
investment partnerships at MIPIM Horizons.
“Omnidior now owns more than 400 ha of
land in the most prestigious regions of Morocco, representing a total value of €150m,”
said Omnipar’s vice-president, Amine
Berrada Sounni.
Omnidior colleague Hind Berrada Sounni
pointed to the company’s luxury Marrakesh
Alhambra project: “This tourist complex, located 10 km outside Marrakesh, is both a
cultural and residential resort.”
Emerging world of opportunity
opens up for Warwick Hotels
Warwick International Hotels’
Jean-Francois Garnier: moving
into emerging markets
WARWICK International Hotels
is laying the foundations for expansion — and Jean-Francois
Garnier, director of group development, was at MIPIM Horizons
to move the strategy forward.
Based in Paris, Warwick is present in Europe as well as the US
and the South Pacific. “We now
want to look at more emerging
markets, such as North Africa,
Central and South America, and
the Middle East,” Garnier said.
The group’s growing presence in
the US provides a stepping-stone
to the fast-growing regions to the
south, he said, adding: “It was in-
teresting to meet people from
Panama, for instance.”
According to Garnier, Morocco is
a natural choice, because Warwick is already present in Tunisia
and southern Spain. “We have
never approached the Middle
East, although we have a lot of
Middle Eastern customers, so
they know the Warwick name,”
he said. “We saw a very interesting project in Egypt, which has
already been conceptually designed. They have also
structured the financing and are
at the stage where they need to
know who will operate the hotel.”
IHG seeks opportunities in key cities
Omnidior: talking investment
• PALMERAIE DEVELOPPEMENT claims to
have been a leader in Morocco’s luxury resort sector for 40 years, according to the
company’s strategic partnership director,
Joanna Catenoz. “We currently have 15 projects under way in Morocco, ranging in size
from 200 ha to 800 ha,” she added.
Palmeraie is the upmarket development arm
of the Berrada Group. “Our activities range
from villa communities to hotels, marinas,
yacht basins and golf resorts,” Catenoz said.
• MARINA BIZERTE, funded by private
Tunisian investors, is a full-service marina
being built next to the harbour in the ancient
Phoenician port-town of Bizerte, located on
Tunisia’s north coast. “Bizerte is the point in
Africa closest to Europe,” said Marina Bizerte’s marketing manager, Christophe
Lacote. “Sardinia is only 200 km away and
Sicily is 220 km.”
Marina Bizerte will be the first private marina in Tunisia, Lacote said, adding: “We will
be able to take 110-metre mega-yachts. We
are offering 50-year leases on berths, with
no capital-gains tax on berth sales.” The
48,000 sq m marina will be partnered by an
eight-storey block of 170 apartments.
INVESTORS and local developers
were the main targets at MIPIM
Horizons for Brice Marguet, Intercontinental Hotels Group’s
(IHG) director of development for
France and North Africa. His objective in Cannes was to identify new
hotel opportunities in key cities.
Marguet is positive about the demand for business hotels in the
current climate. “Although economic demand is shrinking,
AL ARABIA REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT was promoting
two of its current leisure/
tourism industry schemes at
MIPIM Horizons: Abu Suma,
the 10 million sq m tourist
destination on 1.7 km of
shoreline south of Hurghada
on the Red Sea; and the
520,000 sq m Hill View hotel
and leisure complex, also on
the Red Sea at Marsa Alam.
“We are one of the biggest developers in Egypt,” said the
company’s marketing execu-
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Intercontinental Hotels Group’s
Brice Marguet: targeting key
cities
tive, Deanna Abu Seda. “At
MIPIM Horizons, we were
showcasing our expertise and
business activity in cities remains,” he said. “People will keep
meeting and keep on establishing new business relationships.”
IHG is focused on key cities with
strong levels of international
business and good transport
connections. Marguet added
that MIPIM Horizons was a productive event for him and an
opportunity for “highly targeted,
pre-arranged meetings”.
capabilities to a wider audience and looking to make
good international contacts.”
Al Arabia: promoting a 10 million sq m resort
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••• RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT
World takes up residence in
Morocco’s booming market
DEVELOPER Mandarine Group
is responding to the demand for
all types of residential property
in Morocco.
The Franco-Moroccan company’s
most important investments and
projects are in Morocco, where it
is developing a series of residences and hotels targeted at all
sectors and located in all parts of
the country.
“In Morocco, there is great demand
Mandarine: responding to Morocco’s demand for housing
for residential property, both for social housing and, increasingly, for
upmarket houses, second homes
and holiday homes,” said Mandarine’s general manager, Omar
Essakalli. “The Moroccan banks can
finance the projects. They have not
been exposed to any toxic assets, so
there is no problem with liquidity.”
Foreigners are increasingly looking to Morocco for residences,
Essakalli noted.
Essakalli described MIPIM Horizons as “a great idea”, adding: “We
trust it. We identified many opportunities that we will now follow up.”
When in Romania, build housing
HOUSING options are improving
for the inhabitants of Bucharest.
Cyprus-based L P Ellinas Group
is one of the companies planning
to provide high-quality modern
residential stock to the Romanian capital.
As well as projects in central
Bucharest, the company is planning three developments in
Crevedia, 24 kms north west of
the city. Taken together, these
three schemes form the basis of
what will be virtually a new city,
according to Loucas Ellinas, the
company’s chairman and CEO.
There is strong demand for
SC PERFECT CASA INTERMED,
the Romanian real-estate
agency, came to MIPIM Horizons
to promote two new developments on Bucharest’s north side,
one of which features 48 highend apartments. According to the
company’s CEO Jeana Dragomir,
the development takes the expression ‘turn-key’ to its literal
• MAYFAIR DEVELOPMENTS claims to be one
of the first foreign companies to develop
projects in Morocco. “We first became involved in the Moroccan state’s
social-housing programme,” said the UK developer’s sales and marketing manager,
Jesus Jaen Pareja. “As a fast-growing country, Morocco is committed to a crash
programme of housing supply.”
In recent years, Mayfair has moved into developing private residential schemes in all
sectors. “We currently have 10 projects under
way across the country,” Jaen Paraja added.
• KLK IMMOBILIER was at MIPIM Horizons to
profile three residential projects in Tangier,
Marrakech and Casablanca. The Moroccan
investment and development group comprises three founding companies: Softgroup,
Chaimaa.z and RHI. Each combines their
forces to create villa complexes and family
vacation villages across Morocco, aimed at
the country’s fast-growing middle class.
L P Ellinas: building
in Bucharest
housing in Bucharest because of
the shortage of supply and the
city’s dense population, Ellinas
said, adding that his company
exhibited at MIPIM Horizons in
order to meet investors and
property companies interested
• FUTURE REAL ESTATE, based in Bucharest,
Romania, had two missions at MIPIM Horizons. The first was to attract investors and
partners to the 60 ha Flamingo Park development, which will provide 1,000 residential
units in the northern part of Bucharest. The
second was to promote its range of timberframed houses. Due to the increasing level
of demand for the latter, the company has
now established a subsidiary in France.
“A conventionally built house will take four
months to build,” said the company’s CEO,
Marian Tomescu. “Our competitive advantage is that we deliver in six to eight weeks
and cost 20% less.”
in joint ventures.
L P Ellinas is already working
with the Piraeus Bank. “We own
4 million sq m in the [Crevedia]
area and, as well as building
projects, we are selling land,”
Ellinas said.
KLK: aiming at Morocco’s middle class
conclusion: you arrive with your
luggage and everything else is
provided. The project is due for
completion in June 2009.
“MIPIM Horizons was very good for
our image,” said PR officer Catalina
Bineata. “We made contact with
some very important people,
even though we didn’t conclude
a deal during the actual event.”
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