French property manager Esset gets off to a flying start in Belgium, with the acquisition of property management companies Codabel and Cushman & Wakefield Asset Services in Belgium. Shopping centres Docks Bruxsel and Basilix have subsequently come under French management.
Third-largest player
The new year kicks off with the arrival of a new real estate giant: French property manager Emeria launches Esset Benelux and immediately completes two takeovers. Esset is acquiring the Brussels property manager Codabel and the Belgian asset services division of Cushman & Wakefield. It is unknown how much the French will pay for these acquisitions.
As a result, the newcomer is immediately the third-largest player on the market for professional real estate: Esset is preceded only by JLL and CBRE, Belgian newspaper Le Soir writes. The company also starts out as a fierce competitor in the area of commercial real estate: through the takeover of Codabel, the company obtains the management of the Brussels shopping centres Docks and Basilix.
1.6 million square metres
Esset Benelux starts off with 1.6 million square metres of real estate in its management portfolio. In addition to shopping centres, this also involves offices and other commercial property on the Belgian market. Sister company Trevi Corporate will also join the Esset group.
According to Esset’s general director, Nicolas Renders, a wave of consolidation is taking place, both in real estate management and among the institutional investors that own the real estate. “These institutional parties have an increasing need for a larger partner with whom they can also cooperate internationally”, Renders told Belgian newspaper De Tijd. Further acquisitions may follow in the upcoming months, not only in retail real estate but also in logistics real estate management.
