LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As the largest shareholder of conwert Immobilien Invest SE ("conwert"), MountainPeakTrading Limited ("MountainPeak") is focused on the creation and implementation of a strategy that will unlock shareholder value in conwert for all shareholders, whilst stabilising the company in its day-to-day business operations.
MountainPeak is owned by a trust for the benefit of Teddy Sagi. Teddy Sagi, an experienced Israeli business founder, technology and real estate entrepreneur, has an outstanding track record in creating shareholder value in private and public companies. Major public holdings of trusts for his benefit include Playtech Holdings Plc, a leader in gaming software, whose market cap has increased fivefold since listing in March 2006 to £2.5bn today; Safecharge Plc which has produced a total shareholder return of investment of 169% net since IPO in April 2014; and MarketTech Holdings Plc, the owner of landmark Camden properties and fast growing e-commerce businesses, with £1.0bn market cap and which has produced a total shareholder return of investment of 36% net since IPO in December 2014.
As the core shareholder of conwert, MountainPeak proposes the following initiatives including and after the election of a strong Administrative Board with relevant experience and proven expertise in corporate directorship within the real estate sector.
- Appoint a strong CEO: MountainPeak would endorse Ben Lehrecke as CEO of conwert. Lehrecke has all the requisite property and financing expertise and energy to drive the business and unlock shareholder value
- Propose the real estate experts Barry Gilbertson and Maureen Harris to become members of the Administrative Board. Barry Gilbertson's appointment would strengthen the board's focus on strong corporate governance whilst bringing long-standing real estate sector and valuation expertise into the conwert Administrative Board. Maureen Harris' appointment would help to accelerate the implementation of the capital structure optimisation through the application of her wealth of experience in debt restructuring
- Focus on enhancing FFO growth
- Optimise conwert's capital structure and cost of funding: MountainPeak advises conwert to introduce an active liability management and access debt capital markets
- Improve Operating Efficiency: MountainPeak proposes conwert to reduce overhead and operating expenses to bring it more in line with peers and thereby drive cash earnings growth
- Streamlining Portfolio Structure in three main categories:
- conwert should maximize the value creation from its higher valued residential buildings through unit sales
- Reduce vacancy and increase like-for-like rental growth through more effective asset management
- Resolute lease-up and reconstitution of conwert's commercial to create a more valuable commercial portfolio
- Transparency: Once approved by the Administrative Board, the further details of the strategy will be shared with the market, together with the implementation plan and timescales for achievement. MountainPeak is committed to transforming conwert into a company with adherence to strong corporate governance and transparent reporting
MountainPeak is concerned to ensure a short-term strategy that builds into long-term stabilisation and success, and therefore advises conwert to implement an aggressive but realistic strategy of FFO increase measures. Conwert has to capture value uplift through targeting higher gains on sales over current market value, rather than increasing arithmetic NAV calculations through manipulation of valuations. MountainPeak sees significant value in the conwert platform.
MountainPeak firmly believes that the appointment of the named corporate and real estate professionals will enable the swift unlocking of conwert's shareholder value for all shareholders.
Barry Gilbertson, is an internationally experienced real estate expert, having more than 40 years' in the property sector, including 15 years as a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers (pwc) leading the business recovery real estate team. Significant cases where Professor Gilbertson led the real estate input include Canary Wharf (Olympia and York UK), Wembley Stadium, Enron, McCarthy & Stone and Lehman Brothers, the latter having an $8bn real estate portfolio in residential and commercial assets and investments. Gilbertson has worked internationally on real estate restructurings for the past 21 years or so, in some 31 countries, including Austria and Germany. An experienced non-executive director of three publicly-quoted corporates for the past four years, but has been working with, and advising, corporate boards for more than 20 years. On Granite REIT, a Canadian corporate, listed on the NYSE and the TSX, with c$2.3bn real estate assets in 8 countries (including Austria and Germany, with European office is Vienna), Gilbertson is also a founding non-executive director of Custodian REIT, listed on the London Stock Exchange, a £200m real estate investment trust, launched in April 2014.
Gilbertson holds two appointments as Visiting Professor in the UK, has lectured at 20 universities around the world, served on the Bank of England Property Forum for ten years, was the 123rd President of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and currently serves on the Council of the University of Bath, UK. Gilbertson has particular specialisms in strategy and risk, wherever real estate is material to the market worth of a corporate.
Maureen Harris has a strong record of performance in investment banking, lending and asset restructuring from a financial perspective, and is well known in the UK capital markets for her work in this sector over the past 30 years. Her experience ranges across the real estate banking spectrum, from corporate debt origination, to corporate financial restructuring and asset disposal strategies all culminating in membership of the UK Business Board for a bank with a real estate lending portfolio of some £21bn. Harris has twice been co-chair of the Group Credit Committee for two banking organisations and also an advisor to a private equity real estate fund in excess of £5bn of UK and European real estate portfolio, both residential and commercial.
Ben Lehrecke has more than 20 years of expertise in the German and Austrian real estate sector. He is a versatile and experienced real estate investment manager with extensive investment, capital markets and operational experience in the office, retail and residential space and excellent network. Lehrecke is currently Managing Director at Round Hill Capital responsible for the company's German residential investment management platform. This included the role of CEO of Round Hill's largest investment, Vitus Immobilien S.a.r.l, one of the leading housing companies in North and West Germany with a portfolio of about 30,000 owned and further 20,000 managed units. He headed the German and Austrian property investment and management for the Pears Family Trust one of the largest private real estate groups in Britain. Lehrecke has held numerous senior positions in acquisition and business development for the KanAm Group in Munich and Tishman Speyer Properties in London and New York. There he was responsible for the acquisition and financing of office, retail, and residential assets--total deal value exceeding EUR3.5bn.
Ben Lehrecke holds a joint masters in business management and engineering from the Technical University Berlin and a masters in real estate development from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
About MountainPeak:
MountainPeak Trading Limited is owned by a trust for the benefit of Teddy Sagi. Teddy Sagi is an experienced Israeli business founder, technology and real estate entrepreneur.
The business of trusts for the benefit of Teddy Sagi encompasses international property assets, online infrastructure, software and digital advertising, global foreign exchange trading technology and online payment provision, and employs thousands of people across the globe. The value of these assets currently exceeds EUR4.3bn.
The Teddy Sagi Group has a long track record in the real estate sector in the UK, Germany and other markets. In the UK, the Group's most significant asset is an 87% shareholding in Market Tech Holdings plc, which was floated on 22 December 2014 at an offering price of 200p before climbing to over 270p in under 6 months, and is currently traded at c. £1billion market cap. This company owns 12 acres of land in and around the iconic Camden markets, one of the UK's leading tourist attractions, with around 28 million visitors every year. Under Market Tech's new ownership, the previously segregated Camden markets have been unified under a single umbrella brand, investing heavily in its e-commerce infrastructure, which has led to a significant increase in sales and revenues. This project won Commercial Deal of the Year and Teddy Sagi won Entrepreneur of the Year at the renowned Variety Club Props Awards in May 2015.
In Germany, the Group founded, held and sold majority stakes in Grand City Properties, listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.