French property group Affine will continue to re-balance its office-dominated portfolio with new operations in the retail and retail warehousing sectors this year. Maryse Aulagnon, chairman and CEO of the Affine Group, told PropertyEU in an interview that the decision is part of the company's ongoing efforts to diversify its portfolio across different sectors to avoid 'concentration of risks.'
French property group Affine will continue to re-balance its office-dominated portfolio with new operations in the retail and retail warehousing sectors this year. Maryse Aulagnon, chairman and CEO of the Affine Group, told PropertyEU in an interview that the decision is part of the company's ongoing efforts to diversify its portfolio across different sectors to avoid 'concentration of risks.'
'We noticed two years ago that offices represented a major share of our portfolio so we started focusing our investments on retail and increased its share from just under 14% to nearly 20% at present,' Aulagnon said, adding that the company has a preference for city-centre retail assets.
'In the warehousing sector, we will try to shift our focus this year from large regional platforms to smaller facilities closer to the cities,' added Alain Chaussard, vice president of the group. In the office sector, the company will consider redevelopment or acquisition possibilities this year. 'We refrained from launching new operations in 2009, but we will launch them this year, because we expect values to rise again,' he said.
In 2009, the group acquired a number of retail properties in Paris, Nimes, Bordeaux and Arcachon while in March this year it sold its business park unit, BFI, to Regus for an undisclosed amount. The BFI assets were bought by Affine in 2005 and represented an annual turnover of EUR 8 mln. According to Aulagnon, the disposal of the business centre portfolio was part of the company's strategy to simplify its structure, which appeared too complicated for its size.
The Affine Group consists of three main parts, a Paris-focused commercial property unit, AffiParis; a Belgian subsidiary dedicated to restructure obsolete properties in good locations in Belgium, Luxembourg and France; and Affine, a long term investor in French commercial properties with assets worth some EUR 630 mln.
Chaussard said that the company could also consider reducing its stake in the AffiParis unit from 65% at present to around 20-30%. 'We are willing to reduce our stake if we can continue managing the company,' he said. AffiParis was launched in 2007 and currently has a portfolio worth EUR 220 mln with an occupancy rate of 98%.