France's Icade to grow assets to €11b over next 4 years

French listed property Group Icade has unveiled plans to lift its assets under management to €11 bn as part of a new three-year strategic business plan.

The figure represents an increase of over 20% on the company's existing portfolio of €9 bn.

'Icade’s management has developed a clear roadmap with a view to establishing the group as a reference integrated real estate player, focused on delivering profitable growth,' commented Olivier Wigniolle, Chief Executive Officer of Icade.

As part of the new strategic plan, the company will next year sell the services business portfolio which currently represents less than 3% of the total. In 2014, the business line generated turnover of €45 mln.

At the same time, Icade plans to refocus its €3.9 bn business park portfolio on value-creation assets while adopting an opportunistic approach to the non-core business parks.

'Disposal of selected assets, switching to the most relevant asset class for the environment (e.g. convert part of sites into residential units) and enhancement of the occupancy rate through active asset management policy will be the cornerstone of our value creation strategy,' the real estate subsidiary of Caisse des Depots said.

In terms of offices, Icade intends to broaden its investment scope from offices in the Paris region to include also the major French cities, in order to improve the group’s risk/return profile. Offices currently represent around 39% of its portfolio, or €3.5 bn.

Icade also confirmed its focus on healthcare which it says is no longer a 'niche' asset class. As such, the French REIT will look at new acquisitions as well as active asset management to boost cashflow in the portfolio, which is currently valued at €1.4 bn.

With the new programme, Icade hopes to clarify and simplify its strategy which it felt was not sufficiently clear to investors. The company said it was penalized by a lack of visibility with its shares trading at a significant discount to net asset values.