Pradera has promoted David Fletcher to the position of CEO as the retail property specialist seeks to grow its geographic reach and assets under management significantly over the next few years, PropertyEU has learned.
Formerly managing director, Fletcher has been with the retail property fund and asset manager for almost 15 years and has been responsible for a number of major initiatives, including the recent joint venture with Macquarie to provide asset management services in Asia.
His promotion comes as Pradera looks to enter the Nordics, open an office in Germany and to further expand its new Asia presence. Pradera also has a target of growing assets under management from €2.6 bn now to €5 bn by 2020, Fletcher told PropertyEU.
Pradera's current portfolio comprises one million m2 of retail space and 2,000 tenants managed by local teams in eight European markets and in China. The company intends to expand into a few more markets to complete its European platform. 'Going into the last financial crisis we were heavily weighted to southern Europe and CEE. Both remain key markets but other big targets for us are to open a German office and a Nordics platform over the next 12 months,' Fletcher said. A head of Germany is likely to be appointed shortly and a Nordics capital markets specialist has joined the company.
Fletcher: 'Pradera has a vision to build on the last 16 years of our success and create the leading global retail real estate asset manager. We have opened offices in Hong Kong and China this year and are looking to expand in Asia, starting with our 50:50 joint venture with Macquarie in China. Fletcher's elevation from the managing director position is part of a raft of transitional appointments following on from multi-family office LJ Partnership taking a minority stake in Pradera last May. LJ's largest shareholders are family offices and businesses from Hong Kong and Latin America.
The company has operated a flat management structure since then, consisting of Pradera co-founder and co-owner Colin Campbell as chairman, Fletcher as managing director and other business unit managers. There was no CEO until Fletcher's promotion. Campbell will continue as full-time chairman.
Campbell commented: 'David's appointment marks the successful conclusion of the succession planning that began with the sale of co-founder Paul Whight's shareholding in April 2015 [to the Colin Campbell Family Trust] and continued with the arrival of LJ Partnership as a significant minority shareholder at the end of May 2016. I know that, under David's day-to-day leadership, the prospects for the company and for the future performance we can deliver to our clients are in the very best hands.'
Pradera recently spread its wings beyond Europe by forming a 50:50 joint venture with Australia's Macquarie to provide asset management services in Asia. The joint venture already manages three shopping centres in China, valued at €650 mln, and plans to grow this to €1.5 bn by end-2017.
