Tag Archives: irish
First Irish REIT Raises €310m
JOHN MULLIGAN – 13 JULY 2013 Ireland’s first Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) has raised €310m after strong international interest in the property investment vehicle led to it being significantly over-subscribed. The REIT backed by executives at Green Property received a major endorsement from US-headquartered global investment group Pimco , which, through a vehicle it controls in Luxembourg , has taken a 10pc stake in the REIT. Pimco has over $2 trillion (€1.5trn) of assets under management. The Green REIT – due to float on the Irish Stock Exchange next Wednesday – will primarily target investment property in south Dublin. Green Property executives backing the REIT – including the firm’s chairman Stephen Vernon and chief executive Pat Gunne – had hoped to raise €200m for the investment vehicle. They and other Green Property top brass are stuffing a total of €10m of their own money into the REIT. Green Property owns the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre in Dublin and has been a canny player in the property market, offloading some valuable assets before the market imploded. The REIT is the first to be launched in Ireland and comes on the heels of changes made this year to legislation in the Finance Act. It’s also the first such vehicle to be listed on the stock exchange. Gary Kennedy, the chairman of the REIT, said the fundraising was a “strong endorsement” of investors’ confidence in the Green Property management team and their track record. “It also highlights the opportunity evident in the sectors of the Irish commercial property market that Green REIT is targeting,” he said. Irish Independent Continue reading
Commercial Property Deals In Ireland To Triple This Year-Savills
By Jemima Kelly LONDON, July 11 | Thu Jul 11, 2013 10:05am EDT (Reuters) – Real estate investors will triple spending on Irish commercial property this year, in a bet the country’s tentative economic recovery will gather pace, research showed on Thursday. Total sales are likely to exceed 1.5 billion euros ($1.9 billion) versus 576 million in 2012, property consultant Savills said. It would be the highest amount since 1.8 billion euros in 2007, before the global financial crash sent values plunging by up to half in a country that, together with Spain , suffered Europe’s worst property crash. Some investors have said they see value in Irish real estate. “After steep falls in property values, Ireland is now one of the highest-yielding markets in the developed world,” said David Skinner, real estate chief investment officer at Aviva Investors , which owns 28 billion euros of property in Europe. “Irish real estate looks attractive for long-term investors with a moderate risk appetite.” Euro zone policymakers have hailed Ireland as a success story versus other bailed-out countries such as Greece and Portugal , where political instability and biting austerity measures are hampering economic growth. Ireland is due to exit its EU/IMF bailout programme later this year and is targeting growth of 1.3 percent in 2013, though the country said last month it had slid back into recession. Its patchy recovery has not dented overseas interest from companies like Deutsche Bank’s property arm, JPMorgan and AXA Real Estate, who are chasing a relatively small number of high-quality properties in the capital Dublin. Under pressure from investors to find high returns, some say Dublin looks a good bet versus safer but lower-yielding markets like London, Paris and Frankfurt. Yields, or the annual rent as a percentage of the property’s value, for the best Dublin offices are about 6.25 percent versus about 4 percent in London’s West End, one of Europe’s most in-demand markets. Tenant demand is also on the rise and Dublin office rents rose in March for the first time since the financial crisis. Helped by Ireland’s low corporation tax rate of 12.5 percent, companies like Google , Facebook and Ebay are driving demand. Continue reading
With No Final Deal In Hand, CAP Talks Shift To Brussels
Published 26 June 2013 Negotiations on the future of the post-2013 Common Agricultural Policy are to resume on Wednesday (26 June) at the European Parliament in Brussels after three days of talks failed to produce a hoped-for final agreement. National farm ministers, joined in Luxembourg by the European Commission and negotiators from the Parliament, had hoped to wrap up a deal on Tuesday, after three months and more than 40 rounds of meetings on the 2014-2020 CAP. Simon Coveney, the Irish farm minister who has chaired the talks, said late Tuesday that differences remained. Talks that began in Luxembourg on Monday now shift to Brussels. “While it is fair to say that we have reached agreement in principle on a number of issues, we are still some way from an overall political agreement,” Coveney said, adding that the Brussels meeting “will be difficult but decisive.” Negotiators from the three institutions involved in the CAP talks still must work out differences over stronger market interventions to protect farmers incomes from climate shocks and cheaper imports, and continued market protections for sugar beet producers, both issues that MEPs involved in the talks insist on. Germany has objected to giving MEPs a stronger role in overseeing and amending CAP provisions once a deal is reached, but appeared to ease its opposition to pave the way for an agreement. Farm organisations appeared to clinch a deal that would give young and small farmers extra support through the CAP’s direct payment scheme, although large farms would face cuts. The final deal is likely to disappoint environmental groups as national governments have sought broad exemptions to “greening” measures proposed by the Commission. National governments also appeared to win a deal that would allow a gradual phase-in of measures for “ecological focus areas,” or non-farmed plots that are designed to foster biodiversity. The €50-billion-a-year CAP and its complex set of proposals will miss its deadline for implementation next year. The European Commission has prepared contingency plans for introducing the new measures in 2015 and a transitional period to shift from the existing to a new payments scheme in 2014. POSITIONS: “Organic movements acknowledge that the revised Council position slowly steers the CAP towards greener and fairer outcomes. However a weak Pillar 1 greening and still no decisive commitments for a strong and green Pillar 2 show the resistance of member states to deliver a more ambitious and effective reform”, Thomas Fertl , vice president of IFOAM EU , which represents organic farmers, said in a statement on Wednesday (26 June). “Rural Development measures offer the most potential to deliver greater sustainability. While some improvements have been put in place, these will only have a real impact if there is strong financial firepower in the Pillar 2 budget. There is one last chance for the Commissioner and for MEPs to push only for advanced sustainability measures such as organic farming and high-level agro-environment-climate measures to get financial prioritisation under a Pillar 2 earmark in order to increase farm resilience, protect natural resources and to secure long term food security.” NEXT STEPS: 26 June : CAP talks move to Brussels where a final agreement could be announced 1 July : Lithuania takes over the rotating presidency of the EU Council; Croatia become the 28th EU state and a full beneficiary of the CAP 2014-2020 : Next phase of the Common Agricultural Policy Continue reading
