John Wilkinson, CEO, Greenman, tells The Real Estate Day that as a buy and hold fund they believe they can generate income for their investors by focusing on micro-locations across the country, as German food retailers are financially strong and online shopping in this sector has not yet taken off.
Germany’s open-ended retail real estate funds saw record inflows in 2019 as the gap widened on the spreads between government bond yields and returns from the property market, as new data published by Berlin-based rating agency Scope shows.
As a comparison, the average yield on 14 open-ended mutual real estate funds over the past 15 years has always shown a positive differential, or premium, over German government bonds, with this spread, or “excess return” only widening since 2013. Net inflows in 2019 were only exceeded in 2009 and 2016.
As Frank Netscher, analyst at Scope, puts it: “The 3.8 percentage-point spread between yields on open-ended real estate funds and German government bonds has very rarely been so wide. “On the one hand, yields on government bonds have fallen steadily, with the yield on 10-year German bonds in negative territory for much of 2019. On the other hand, yields on open-ended real estate funds have also risen steadily, driven primarily by increases in the value of properties in fund managers’ portfolios.” Read more here in ReFire:
In 2021, for the second edition of our GMO event series, we invited panellists to discuss how COVID-19 has acted as a catalyst for changes already afoot in the retail real estate industry
More than 200 participants joined our moderator David O’Meara from Greenman and the panel of experts in an open discussion on the market insights, trends and challenges of the retail and real estate market.
Panellists
As 2020 is the start of a new decade we wanted to look forward and consider what will/may influence retail and real estate funds, in particular Greenman OPEN (GMO), as we move towards 2030.
200 participants joined our panel of experts in an open and frank discussion on what technologies are impacting the retail and real estate markets.
Panellists
Christian Schimanski, Hamburg Commercial Bank, Germany
Dr Holger Wolf, White & Case LLP, Germany
Lynda Boylan, Manna.Aero, Ireland
Dr Angelus Bernreuther, Kaufland, Germany
Emily Bohill (Moderator), Bohill Partners, London
Insights from the Day
– The outlook for bricks and mortar German grocery stores looks stable with digitalisation focusing on addressing customer needs & overall retail experience.
– Drone deliveries could provide a low cost, high speed, environmentally friendly solution to last mile logistics, potentially working together with grocery stores in the future.
– Blockchain has the ability to revolutionise the way real estate sector operates from smart contracts to management and execution of property sales and leases.
– The continuation of a lower for longer interest rate environment will result in debt remaining cheaper for longer & yield gaps remaining significant. – Greenman OPEN targets to achieve €1bn AUM by the end of 2020.
Greenman OPEN’s Q3 Performance webinar was held on Thursday 5 November.
Key takeaways:
– Greenman OPEN’s asset class market share has increased as investors search for the stability food retailers offer.
– Foreign investment has increased by 14% y-on-y underlining their confidence in Germany’s security & stability.
– Retail remains open under new Covid-19 restrictions in Germany. Coupled with additional VAT cuts to stimulate spending.
– CFO underlines target to achieve half a billion NAV by end of year and CEO discusses possibility of drone delivery trial with Manna in the new year.
Panellists
Johnnie Wilkinson
David O’Meara
Michael Barry
James McEvoy
Catherine Choo
Greenman OPEN (GMO) ran a webinar, Consistency in Chaos, as the first in a series of online discussions. Greenman’s management team discussed how the GMO fund can fit into client’s pension portfolio and provide them with consistent income for the long term. As well as the latest research, insights and considerations for both investors and landlords in the Food Retail real estate sector.
Additional topics included:
– Insights on the impacts of Covid-19 on retailers and investors;
– What are the long-term effects on the industry.
Panellists
Johnnie Wilkinson
David O’Meara
James McEvoy
Catherine Choo
John Wilkinson, CEO, Greenman, talks to The Real Estate Day at Expo Real 2019 about how Greenman OPEN, as a buy and hold fund, believe they can generate income for their investors by focusing on micro-locations across the country, as German food retailers are financially strong and online shopping in this sector has not yet taken off.
During this time of uncertainty, Greenman’s priority is the health and safety of our staff, clients, business and our communities.
We remain fully operational and we do not anticipate any material disruption of our services to you.
However we are implementing our contingency plans for both our staff and our operations to ensure that our services are consistently and securely provided to our clients, including where we are working remotely. With that in mind, we would like to share with you some measures that we have taken that will ensure that we maintain the levels of service and responsiveness you expect from Greenman, with the need to adapt to the circumstances in which we now find ourselves.
Our offices will remain closed for the week of the 16th and all physical meetings are cancelled. This will be reviewed weekly and we will update you on any changes. All post, phone calls and emails will continue to be received and forwarded to the relevant people. If in-person visits are deemed to be essential, we will communicate with our visitors about their recent travel history and potential exposure to the coronavirus.
We will continue to monitor the specific implications of the virus on our staff and our services, taking guidance from Ireland’s Health Service Executive, the Irish Government and the World Health Organisation.
We hope you stay healthy during the coming weeks. Should you require any further information or would like to speak to a member of our team, please do not hesitate to contact us.
It was wonderful to celebrate the opening of our new office with so many business partners, investors, colleagues and friends who have been part of and helped Greenman over the past few years. Having outgrown our last office, the new space in Berlin set over three floors, provides us with ample room to expand into as we continue to grow.
A special thank you to his excellency, Ambassador Nicholas O’Brien for speaking at the reception and to our friends at Lough Ree Distillery for bringing their Slingshot Irish Gin to the event for us to try.
