"From a business perspective, this was one of the best years in CTP's history," said Remon Vos, CEO of CTP, adding: "Our company has grown significantly despite the global pandemic. The year 2020 is a closed chapter, and we can say today that CTP has been growing organically in terms of profit for 22 years. Our portfolio is set up so that we want to significantly exceed the 7 million m2 mark by the end of 2021, and we are well on our way to reaching a total leasable area of 10 million m2 by the end of 2023. ”
Several factors contributed to these strong CTP results in 2020, including the continued strong growth of e-commerce, which grew even more due to the coronavirus pandemic and increased demand for logistics facilities in the region. With large vacant plots of land in several Central and Eastern European countries and a total developing potential of approximately 5.4 million m2 of gross leasable area, CTP is ready to meet the future demands of its tenants.
More than 65% of CTP's vacant land is adjacent to existing parks, which brings less risk and opportunities for CTP to profitable development in the coming years. Also important is the fact that 82% of these vacant plots are located near major or large Central and Eastern European cities, which is also in line with the long-term CTP strategy.
At the end of 2020, 740,000 m2 of development projects were under construction with a view to completion during 2021. 63% of them have already been rented in advance by current and new clients. The company will invest € 235 million to complete these constructions during 2021. At the end of 2020, CTP's available financial resources consisted of a mixture of committed bank funds and large amounts of cash and clearly exceeded the value needed to complete these development projects.
"We close more than 80% of our new business with our existing client base, which consists of more than 700 tenants. We now have a WAULT of 6.0 years on contracted leases. We are constantly expanding the vacant land fund to be ready to meet the needs of our clients for expansion, whether in CTPark, where they already lease or in new areas,” explains Richard Wilkinson, CFO and Deputy CEO of CTP. "With each expansion, our clients can take advantage of the range of our network, which allows them to grow their business in the locations that best suit their needs because they know they have a long-term expansion partner at CTP."
In 2020, CTP increased its market shares in five key markets - Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Serbia, thus strengthening its leading position as the largest real estate developer and owner of logistics assets in Central and Eastern Europe in terms of gross leasable area.
CTP recently announced two strategic deals. The first transaction is the signing of a strategic partnership with the local developer MDC2 in Poland, where CTP plans to build and own a portfolio of high-quality business parks with complete service and a gross leasable area of at least 1.75 million m2 by the end of 2025.
The construction of the first three projects is expected to start in the first quarter of 2021 in the Warsaw and Katowice regions, and the total volume of investments for this year is approximately EUR 200 million. Partnering with this team of experienced local professionals will help CTP to establish itself quickly in the largest logistics market in Central and Eastern Europe.
The second strategic transaction is in Austria, where CTP acquired land in several locations around Vienna. The first construction works are planned for this year.
CTP will use its retained earnings for growth, but will also finance further expansion through green bonds. The first CTP bonds were issued in October and November 2020 and amounted to more than 1 billion euros. This historically largest issue of green bonds by a logistics real estate developer in the whole of Central and Eastern Europe has met with considerable investor interest, and bonds have been trading well ever since.
"The performance of our green CTP bonds is impressive. If we compare this with our debt costs from existing bank loans of 2.1%, we see that the yield on bond trading for 2025 is about 0.8%," comments Jan-Evert Post, head of financing and relations with investors in CTP.
The CTP decided to issue green bonds after its commitment in 2019 to certify its entire portfolio of logistics and industrial projects to the highest BREEAM standards, a leading validation process in Europe focused on the sustainability and energy efficiency of commercial real estate.
In January 2021, the company successfully obtained BREEAM certificates for its entire logistics and industrial portfolio: 292 completed buildings in approximately 100 different locations in six countries and rated "Very Good" or "Excellent".
Source:// Systémy logistiky
