(Milorad Ivanović)
British company Renaissance Plaza, which has invested EUR 22m in Serbia to the date, plans to form a fund that will invest another about EUR 10m in real estate development in our country within next four years. As the tenth anniversary of the presence of that finance group in Serbia and Montenegro is approaching, we talked with Milorad
Ivanović, CEO of Carlton
Invest, Belgrade-based consulting and management company.
eKapija: When and in what way did Renaissance Plaza, represented by Carlton Invest, start operating on our territory?
- Long-time operations of the investor in the field of financial management and sale, through conquering of the markets of Russian Federation and southwest Balkans, with friendly relationships with the associates in Serbia, led to expansion of the business in the area of real estates in Serbia and Montenegro after the changes in 2000.
eKapija: The most effective way to organize and control investments was the formation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV)
for individual facilities.
- The existing facility of Renta Villa in Herceg Novi was bought from the Montenegrin Ministry of Finance and it became a property of newly formed SPV Montevile. The existing facility, built in 1972, was redesigned, reconstructed and expanded to become an exclusive residential-business facility and it was offered to the market with 11 suites, 10 villas and 10 office spaces. It is situated on Pet Danica walk, above the Škver port. The new owners became shareholders of the condominium company for the facility management and security, and a new parking lot for the owners of villas and suites was built within it. After two years of existence, within the scope of the guarantee period, Montevile discontinued its operations. Our operations in Belgrade started with the construction of a city villa at 73 Krunska Street (the Embassy of the European Commission to SCG prior to 2009), followed by the construction of a business facility in Milutina Milankovića Boulevard in New Belgrade (sold to Uniqa Real Estate),
residential facility with 24 apartments and 29 garages at 67 Jove Ilića Street in Voždovac... Total market value of the built facilities exceeds EUR 22m.
(Montevile
in Herceg Novi)
eKapija: In which way do you finance construction of your facilities?
- The first two facilities were financed by investors. Development of banking sector in Serbia, introduction of project finance, and creation of references for our company and the managerial team in Belgrade and London, facilitated successful cooperation with several business banks (Raiffeisen, HYPO, KBC, Erste...) with our share of up to 30% in individual projects, which enabled investment dispersion and made it possible for us to gain extremely important trust of the clients in our capability to deliver the agreed quality and meet the deadlines.
eKapija: How do you see your company's development in the future?
An assessment of the potentials of Serbian market, the educational structure of working-age population, development of financial sector, tourism, traffic and trade connections with the countries of the Balkans and Russian Federation, have led us to think about the expansion of investments through formation of a fund whose base would be the performance of Carlton Invest as the "mother company" that forms a special SPV company in Serbia for each individual project. For that purpose, in order to facilitate establishment of the ownership of land and facilities and tax compliance, we transferred the company's property from Great Britain to Cyprus. The aim is investing of up to 10 million euros within three years starting from 2011, which would represent a base for appropriate crediting by foreign business banks.
eKapija: How was the managerial structure of Carlton Invest formed?
- We have decided for a long-term cooperation with top consultants in certain fields (law firm Kosić, SGS, Deloitte & Touche, Kodeco, Consaldra...) with direct control of the decision-making process, financial realization, coordination of activities by an expert team from London. The company operates as a pure investment group that carries out project management, including the acquisition of locations, creation of urban conditions, making of marketing campaigns for the purpose of sale or rent through direct agreements with clients. Planning, construction, procurement of equipment and expert supervision of installation works are carried out on the basis of the contractor agreements with verified companies from Serbia and the region. These activities are directly executed by seven permanently employed engineers, lawyers, economists and accountants in Carlton Invest and SPV companies.
eKapija: What are your plans for the following period?
- Construction of a residential facility at 17 Vojvode
Savatija Street in Belgrade is underway, with the project finance by Erste Bank Novi Sad. The facility is planned to be completed and ready for tenants in late November 2010. Construction works on a residential-business facility in Pančevo started one month ago, while the construction of another facility in Belgrade is expected to start within next three months (technical documentation is already submitted for registration of the commencement of works), which is, all together, 47 apartments and 5 office spaces with 52 garages. Total investment amounts to about EUR 4.5m.
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