A record year!

CTP made significant progress last year, achieving further growth in terms of size of portfolio, rental income and profit. Company increased its market share in the region significantly and enlarged our footprint in Central and Eastern Europe with the expansion to Bulgaria and Austria. “To realize our ambitious growth target we have strengthened our organization, expanded our staff and optimized our corporate structure. On top of that, we were recognized by the international capital markets: we successfully obtained two investment grade ratings and our bonds have performed greatly since issuance,” Remon Vos, CEO of CTP explains.

Strong results of CTP in 2020 were driven by several factors, including the continued strong growth of e-commerce, which saw further growth as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and drove up the demand for the logistics space in the region. With a substantial landbank across several CEE countries and a total development potential of approximately 5.4 million m² of gross lettable area, CTP is ready to meet the future demand of its tenants. Over 65% of CTP’s landbank is adjacent to existing parks providing lower risk, profitable development opportunities for CTP in the years to come. Importantly, and congruent with CTP‘s long-term strategy, 82% of the landbank is around the CEE capitals or major cities.

CEE: region of the future

At end 2020, 740 thousand m² of developments was under construction to be finished during 2021. Of this, 62% was already pre-let to existing and new clients. Also, a total of €235 million will be spent on capital expenditure to complete these developments during 2021. CTP’s available funding per year end 2020 consists of a mix of committed bank facilities plus a large cash position and is well in excess of the amount needed to complete these developments.

A majority of our new business is concluded with the existing base of over 700 tenants. We now enjoy a WAULT of 6.0 years on our contracted leases. We constantly grow our land-bank to make sure we are ready to satisfy the need of our clients to expand, whether within the CTPark location where they currently lease or in new regions. Wherever clients expand, they benefit from our network’s scale, allowing them to grow their business in the locations that best suit their needs, knowing they have a long-term partner for expansion in CTP.

Scale and superb property management is what sets CTP apart on the CEE industrial property market. Our company doesn’t outsource leasing or technical management but instead employs its own property managers on site whose primary job is to make 700 tenants happy. Building and maintaining strong relationship with tenants is the key aspect for the continuous growth and the main reason why 80% of CTP’s new business comes from existing clients. The growth strategy remains the same no matter which country CTP operates in.

“Our scalable platform is positioned for continued growth, targeting more than 7.5 million sqm GLA by end of 2021 and more than 10 million sqm GLA by end of 2023. Our strategy is to reach these targets primarily via largely pre-let developments, as well as targeted acquisitions and decisive expansion into adjacent markets and segments,” explains Vos. “Our pipeline looks great and we are well placed to take advantage of the favourable market circumstances, providing the solutions the markets and tenants are looking for.”

Logistics is a hot sector nowadays, with high tenant loyalty and increased business satisfaction, especially in CEE. Demand for modern logistics properties in the region is primarily driven by increasing e-commerce penetration and deep integration of supply chains with Western Europe. There is a high potential to benefit from nearshoring due to favourable manufacturing labour costs, quality of infrastructure, environment regulations and trade openness. Today, existing logistics property stock per capita in CEE is only 50%compared to Western countries, offering strong growth potential.

The highly attractive outlook for logistics property, with multiple positive demand drivers accelerated by COVID-19 further underpins the attractiveness of CTP portfolio, the largest one in Central and Eastern Europe. Further expansion will be primarily focused on neighbouring countries such as Austria, Poland, Serbia and Bulgaria but prospectively also on other European countries. CTP has made first investments in Austria and Bulgaria expects them to commence by the end of 2021.

As CTP announced its intention to float on Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange in March 2021, a new Board with a majority of independent directors will be established, in line with the Dutch Corporate Governance Code. CTP’s executive committee consists of the two executive directors, CEO Remon Vos and Richard Wilkinson (CFO), together with four key officers: Jan-Evert Post, Ana Dumitrache, David Chládek and David Huszlicska, who are responsible for day-to-day management of the Group. The non-executive directors will be newly appointed to CTP for term up to four years: Barbara Knoflach, Gerard van Kesteren, Susanne Eickermann-Riepe and Pavel Trenka. Our new Board members have a wealth of experience ensuring active and transparent governance.