Zirve Eki - ISTANBUL REstate

Burhanettin Yurtseven
Pramerica REI, Genel Müdür MRICS
Pramerica Real Estate Investors is the real estate business of
Prudential Financial. Prudential Financial is one of the largest and
insurance company of the US. We do their investment management
all over the world, and currently we have approximately 43 billion
dollar under management worldwide. With regard to Turkey,
we made our first investment in 2007 and opened our office in
2008, and currently we have 3 development projects under
management. We definitely want to have more than 3 projects
in the near future.
Oturum Baflkan› : Andreas Schiller
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much for that introduction and sorry that I just wanted to start directly, but we have such a hot
topic. So we have Güniz made our first comment and Burhanettin, let me ask you from the investor's side. Maybe you can tell us
a little bit about the projects Pramerica has invested in Turkey. How is it? Where to get the money from? Is it funding or is it difficult
with the banks? How is your estimation of the situation?
Burhanettin Yurtseven: I mean, when we came to Turkey,
we obviously had done a research about Turkey, of course, before.
And we bought a piece of land in 2007 in Antalya. I think before
the crisis and luckily we did two other investments also before
the crisis. So we are investing in, let me say, the structure of our
investment is was A-class offices and B-cities as well. So when I
started to work for Pramerica, we also looked for opportunities
in Anatolian cities in 2007-2008. But nowadays, I must say, from
investment or international investment management company
perspective, we are currently focused on the main markets. I
mean Istanbul, probably Izmir, Antalya, those are the markets
where we are looking for. Unfortunately, I see a high demand
for shopping centers in Anatolian region as well, but you know,
the crisis also lead the banks to be more careful in their financing
as well. So we have to choose our projects very carefully. So
when we started, we said now we want to open everywhere
shopping center, everywhere where population is more than
300.000, where we wanted to open a shopping center, but
nowadays again it is difficult to open in those cities a shopping
center for an international investor, because it is difficult to get
financing for those places as well. So we have focused on the
main markets. One of our projects is that we are doing with ECE
as the leasing agent is in Antalya, a shopping center with 47.000
square meters GLA. Then we have a secondary home, holiday
homes project in Bodrum, an ongoing project. And also we have
a mix-use project in Istanbul. So we would like to do more, but
depends on the current markets, environments or figures. It is
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Gayrimenkul Zirvesi 10
16-17 Haziran 2010
not easy to do business here.
Andreas Schiller: Okay, Burhanettin. You have just mentioned
banks became more cautious. So let me pass to fienay and ask
that question to you; How cautious is Areal Bank?
fienay Azak-Matt: We are cautious. We always have been
cautious. I know the time where we have been blamed as that
we were too conservative in financing. And everybody says you
know that's enough for us... but this is the way how we do the
business. And currently, you know, it looked like that we were
in the right way, because one of the property banks who has
black figures, showed black figures during the crisis. We are still
cautious. I think we are more cautious than we have been before.
That is true. As Güniz Han›m said we look more and focus more
on income producing properties. I can understand Burhanettin
very well, he says "I would like to develop but there are no banks
around to develop" Unfortunately this is the situation and I am
happy to see local banks financing the project in Antalya. I think
we have to show the market that it is possible. Also we look into
development, but we are more focused on maybe not the retail
business, but more on other sectors.
And I want to tell this funny story. We had a phone call and then
learned that one of the title of the meetings is 'Alternative
Financing'. I was thinking "what is alternative financing" and
then I called Mr. Schiller and asked "what is alternative financing?"
"Is this something that I missed as a banker?" And I told you
would answer this question and I am so sorry about. You know,
we are a traditional bank, we are financing on the traditional