Globalworth, the leading institutional office investor in Central and Eastern Europe, with focus on its two main markets, Poland and Romania, has successfully completed a capital increase of 500.5 million euros in order to finance further growth. As part of the increase, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has invested a further 25 million euros. The bank, which became a shareholder in Globalworth in December 2017, currently holds 5.8 per cent stake in the company.
Established in 2013, Globalworth is a fully integrated real estate company acquiring, managing and developing high-quality office, mixed-use and logistics/light-industrial real estate assets in prime locations. Initially the company only focused on Romania, but in 2017 expanded into Poland, the region’s largest market. It is listed on the AIM of the London Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of 1.74 billion euros as of April 24, 2019.
Romania and Poland are establishing themselves as global investment destinations for a number of large multinational companies, including digital economy champions such as Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft, and the associated shared service and business outsourcing services. As the countries transform into service and knowledge-based economies, Globalworth is at the forefront of this critical economic transition process.
The company provides the required top physical infrastructure for prime global corporates, who are often anchor tenants in the assets owned and managed by the company and also seek access to local talent and innovation eco-systems. Globalworth also supports development of co-working facilities into its existing tenant ecosystem through its facility management and direct investments. This strategy supports development of communities that foster exchange of ideas, collaboration and will lead to new business development opportunities and ignite the future economic growth in these countries.
As part of the EBRD engagement Globalworth also committed to elevate its corporate governance through implementation of the GRI reporting standards, a global standard for a structured reporting framework on economic, environmental, social and governance performance. The company also committed to achieve sustainability certifications and improvements for assets that will be added to its portfolio. As of Q1 2019 Globalworth has 31 green certified standing properties accounting for almost 75 per cent by value of its commercial portfolio. The company is also in the process of certifying or re-certifying 19 other properties.
