Catella was founded in 1987 in Sweden and is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm in the Mid Cap segment. Catella’s vision is to be your sustainable investment partner – the link between property and capital.
The business is run through three business areas: Investment Management, Principal Investments, and Corporate Finance.
Catella Investment Management offers institutional investors property funds and other custom-made indirect structures, asset management, project management, and advisory services. Catella is a leader in sustainable real estate investing including offering two SFDR Article 9 funds.
In addition, Catella co-invests opportunistically with its clients through the business area Principal Investments.
Within the Investment Management business, Catella Asset Management offers a diverse range of services that creates value in all phases of a property lifecycle in all sectors. This includes identification and acquisition of projects, financing, strategic management such as executing decarbonization plans, and, ultimately, sale – all with a focus on sustainability.
Catella’s philosophy is to leverage local knowledge for sustainable investment. The operations are run by majority-owned local teams across Europe that offer comprehensive knowledge of property markets. Catella Investment Management covers investment activities on behalf of institutional investors such as insurance companies, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, wealth managers, private equity funds, family offices and high net worth individuals.
The main centers for Catella Investment Management are:
- Benelux – Mastricht
- Denmark – Copenhagen
- Finland – Helsinki
- France – Paris
- Germany
- Munich (Commercial & KVG)
- Berlin (Residential)
- Dusseldorf (Development) - Spain – Madrid
- Ireland – Dublin
- Sweden – Stockholm
- United Kingdom – London and Manchester
- Poland
Sector forecasts
INDUSTRIAL: The European logistics market has proven to be very robust in a turbulent environment in recent years. High demand and limited supply have resulted in strong rental growth in the corresponding markets. Catella sees continued growth potential in the European logistics market in the coming years, primarily due to ongoing nearshoring activities and further growth in e-commerce. Catella is focusing on the established logistics regions in the large European economies Germany, France, Benelux, the Nordics and the United Kingdom. Catella also sees strong growth potential in the nearshoring hotspots in Poland, Spain, Portugal and Italy.
OFFICE: The European office market has been in a tense environment in recent times. Home office and macroeconomic challenges have created uncertainty in the market. Nevertheless, current developments show that there is still high demand for office space in Europe. However, it is becoming noticeable that demand is currently focused primarily on modern central offices in the major European metropolises. ESG is becoming increasingly important in the office market. The ESG rating of an office is of outstanding importance from a strategic point of view. There is a clear bifurcation in the European market. Prime green offices are performing well, while other offices in the market are showing a downward trend. As a result, office prime rents are currently continuing to rise in numerous European metropolises. In this context, Catella sees further growth potential in the prime office markets of London, Paris, Munich, Berlin and Stockholm in particular.
RESIDENTIAL:
Despite the economic turbulences, demand for rental housing in European metropolitan areas remains high, resulting in continued positive rental growth. Due to the decline in new construction activities, pressure on the markets is expected to remain high. Catella therefore expects rents to remain robust in metropolitan areas of European markets in the coming years. Catella sees particular potential in the residential markets of highly populated markets in Europe.
Due to the decline in new construction activities in combination with the shortage of supply, there are opportunities in the development sector. The creation of a new supply in constrained residential markets offers investors interesting investments opportunities.
Catella also sees potential in the purpose-built student accommodation segment. European universities that attract international students are generating high demand for this asset class in these markets. The scalability of this segment offers interesting yield potential for investors.
RETAIL: The asset class retail is made up of different segments, which are exposed to different drivers. Catella places particular focus on the grocery sector. This market shows resilience to crises, which means that the corresponding real estate markets are also characterized by robust rental growth. Catella therefore sees significant potential in the European grocery markets in the coming years. The focus is on high-growth regions in the markets of the Nordics, France, Germany, Benelux, Spain, Italy and Austria.
OTHER:
Catella considers the parking asset class to be a niche market with high potential. The popularity of cars as a transport vehicle in combination with limited parking space in metropolitan areas and at transport hubs promotes high yield potential in the asset class.
Catella also sees great potential in the niches of data centers and self-storage. The high demand for computing power in Europe’s data hubs leads to significant yield potential. The limited space for private storage areas in European metropolitan regions leads to a high and robust demand for the asset class self-storage in European metropolitan regions, which enables high yield potentials to be realized in this market segment.
Strategic corporate development
During the past years, Catella has undergone a major transformation and refined its business to fully focus on property in three distinct business areas with significant synergies.
Together these three business areas provide investment and asset management combined with the capability to co-invest along with clients and cutting-edge market intelligence and Advisory services.
Based on a stable financial position, Catella will continue its growth journey and offering capital solutions designed to meet the clients’ needs and demands throughout the various stages of an economic cycle, in a spread of geography, assets, and opportunities. One recent example is the acquisition of Aquila Asset Management which will strengthen the capabilities both in France as well as offer pan-European investment synergies.
The broad offering is well-adapted to be developed to the market situation. This includes a clear focus on increasing products with a clear link to sustainability.
Investment principles & strategy
In addition to being the right thing to do, Catella philosophically believes in the “dual materiality” of sustainable investing – pursue sustainability objectives not only for the benefit of society, but to achieve financial returns and to create real estate that is resilient and robust to adverse shocks. At Catella, sustainability is an opportunity, not a compliance process.
This means focusing on investments that either have strong ESG credentials, clear decarbonisation pathways to go from brown to green that make economic sense, or develop to the highest sustainability standards. With in-house local asset management and development, Catella is much better positioned to execute zero-carbon plans than centrally managed allocator-investors.
Within residential investments, Catella invests in core, and manage-to-core, diversified modern and affordable residential assets, providing stable cash flow and long-term value growth with built in resiliency and robustness because of the focus on sustainability. These investments also include new developments as well as undersupplied sub-segments such as student housing, senior living, and serviced apartments.
Within all commercial property sectors, Catella invests and manages a wide range of investment strategies depending on the client requirements, but always with a focus on sustainability.
Performance verification
Catella performance data is regularly reported to our clients in accordance with their requirements. Catella is licensed under BaFin in Germany, the FCA in the UK, and soon the CSSF in Luxembourg. Catella follows reporting standards and procedures of, among others, INREV, BVI, GRESB and CRREM.
COMPLIANCE STATEMENT
The board of directors’ responsibility for internal control is governed primarily by the Swedish Companies Act, the Nasdaq Stockholm’s regulatory framework for issuers and Swedish Corporate Governance Code. Information about Catella’s internal control and risk management system and measures taken by the board of directors to ensure effective internal control is disclosed each year in Catella’s corporate governance report (part of the annual report).
