Zirve Eki - ISTANBUL REstate

16-17 Haziran 2010
Bettina Graef
Aareal Bank, Otel ve Özel Gayr.
Finansman› Baflkan›
Ys, good afternoon first of all. I work for Areal Bank AG who has
been very active in lending in Turkey and in lending in hotels in
Turkey. We were the first international lender on a hotel in
Istanbul on the Hyatt Regency. And we are proud to still be
lending. And whilst last year we were not as active as we were
the years before, we are very active now. Perhaps a little bit to
the criteria that I think as a question for today as well. We are
particularly looking for international brands which is something
important for us as an international investor coming into the
market. We have a team that just works with hotels, so understands
the specifics of the hotels. But we also have a team of experts
in Turkey, so understands the requirements of the Turkish investors.
In terms of growth in the market, I just read a study yesterday
about the entire world. And Istanbul was one of the markets
Gayrimenkul Zirvesi 10
which was actually poised to have positive growth in the short
term and in the long term which I think, it was one of the few
markets worldwide that look positive long term and short term.
And I think that is a very important point that makes investors
that have been a little troubled in the past year or two. To look
particularly for markets that have positive outlooks and I think
Istanbul is part of that.
Oturum Baflkan› : Jakob Forstnig
Now thank you. I think one of the things we see also that is very difficult to paint a clear picture because every country
has different prerequisites at the moment under different trajectories so to speak. But yes Theodor you have been dealing
with investments, potential investments every day. You have turnover criteria which you have an investment strategy.
Maybe you could give us a short, let's say, overview of where you stand now and what do international institutions and
investors require today for hotel investments?
Theodor Kubak
Union Investment RE, Yön. Dan. & Portföy Yön.
Before that perhaps a brief word about the Union Investment. Union
Investment is a German open investment fund which operates five
open ended funds. Two of them institutional and three of them are
products traded over the bank. In essence, Union Investment has
assets to the total value of round about 16 billion Euros worldwide,
whereby 1.6 billion of these are invested in the hotels. Interesting
perhaps so for this round here is number one that Union Investment
is also invested in Turkey which is a good thing, unfortunately not in
Istanbul yet. But we slowly make our approach to Istanbul. We have
invested into shopping malls in Mersin, Forum Mersin and Forum
Kayseri as well as in two Media Markt, one in Izmir and one in Istanbul.
Having said this, we, unlike Bettina, we are not financers, we are
investors meaning we are looking for purchasing a sustainable product
which yields an attractive return. Attractive to us is different to what
it may mean to any private investor. We are rather conservative
meaning the product should be nice, meaning the hotel should be of
good quality. There should be very strong operator behind it. Any of
the international operators would be ideal; however having said this,
listened before to Divan's activities, Motel One and so forth, and other
reputable operators which have strong balance sheet are also quite of
interest to us. Having said this, we are other than the Intercontinental's,
Marriott's and so forth's, we also have hotels on our balance sheets
which are operated by Steigenberger, the German group or Arcotel,
an Austrian group. In essence, what is important however, is we do
need a lease agreement. Every single property and that is probably the
drawback which we all has a lease agreement attached, but that is
also an opportunity which I perhaps will talk about a little bit later.
GYODER 173