Icade CEO takes chair at EPRA as Corio's Groener steps down

Serge Grzybowski, chairman and CEO of French listed real estate company Icade, is to become chairman of the European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA) from March 2014.

He replaces recently appointed chairman Gerard Groener, CEO of Dutch-based Corio. In a statement EPRA said Groener has decided to step down from the position with immediate effect 'due to pressing business commitments within the company'.

In the interim period, Philip Charls, CEO of EPRA, will be supported by David Atkins, CEO of Hammerson, who was the previous EPRA chairman.

In a reaction, Corio said that Groener had decided to relinquish the role to fully devote his time to rolling out the company's strategy of disposing of non-core traditional shopping centres and transforming older schemes into Favourite Meeting Places (FMPs).

Groener's appointment as EPRA chairman at the organisation's annual conference in September raised eyebrows among delegates and met with disapproval among Corio shareholders who believed he should commit his time fully to running the business.

Corio's share price has been declining for months and the company posted a net loss of €106.4 mln in the first six months of 2013 largely as a result of writedowns on shopping centres earmarked for disposal. This compared with a net profit of €11.7 mln in the first six months of 2012.

During the announcement of the company's first-half results in August, Groener described 2013 as a 'transitional year' in which the focus would continue to be on operational improvements and turning its shopping centres into Favourite Meeting Places. However, some shareholders are unhappy with the pace at which the transition is taking place.
Some 83% of Corio’s portfolio consists of Favourite Meeting Places with Traditional Shopping Centres (TRC) marked for disposal accounting for the remainder.

Commenting on the changing of the guard, Charls said: 'I fully understand and respect Gerard Groener’s decision. Gerard agreed to take up the role in March this year and his company commitments have evolved since, which means he would not have been able to allocate the time to the EPRA chair that the post requires. I am very pleased, however, that our current vice-chair Serge Grzybowski is able to assume the chairmanship from March next year and I look forward to working closely with him as EPRA enters the greatest expansion period in the association’s history.'