P3 trims fat ahead of planned IPO

Logistics company PointParkProperties (P3) has been working behind the scenes in the past few months to incorporate feedback from investors ahead of a fresh IPO attempt.

The Prague-based company is planning a second bash at a flotation, potentially in the third quarter of this year. The company, which is owned by Bahraini investment company Arcapita, abandoned its initial flotation plans in November 2012 due to a valuation gap between the vendors and potential investors.

'If the IPO had gone ahead, it would have been the first out of Chapter 11,' CEO Ian Worboys told PropertyEU at the Mipim real estate fair in Cannes last week. 'Arcapita continues to support us and they don’t plan to sell the assets piecemeal. There has to be value for them. The IPO would have released that value.’

Worboys declined to give a firm date for the planned IPO, but noted that since the Chapter 11 proceedings at Arcapita are due to be lifted by June this year, Q3 was potentially on the cards. ‘We can’t dictate when the window is open. We need to know first that Arcapita is out of Chapter 11.’

Following the aborted flotation, P3 has been getting on with the asset management side of the business, he added. ‘We have cut costs after the pulled IPO and have become a leaner company. We’ve done 100% of the things on investors’ wish lists to take costs out. Unfortunately that has also meant a number of redundancies. But our new systems are more efficient.’

At the end of 2012, P3 trimmed back its payroll by around 10% to just under 60.

CFO George Aase pointed out that P3 had reported a total of 604,000 m2 of leasing last year compared with 473,000 m2 in 2011, an increase of 28%. ‘We’re being creative. We have not really noticed that Arcapita is in Chapter 11.’ While the overall vacancy rate of the portfolio is 10%, France accounts for a large portion of that figure, he said. In Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, the portfolios are more than 99% leased.

Aase added that 2013 was shaping up better than 2012 and that there were signs that the logistics markets is now starting to turn. ‘There’s a great deal of interest in our development projects. Two years ago that wouldn’t have been the case.’

Worboys is optimistic that 2014 will be ‘a very different year’. ‘There’s lack of supply, rents are growing and there's more demand for built-to-suit and built-to-own. We can see real growth ahead.’