Covivio


Covivio, formerly Foncière des Régions, is a European investment and development company with business activities encompassing office real estate, hotels and residential accommodation. Europe’s fourth-largest real estate investment trust, its portfolio is worth an estimated €23 billion. Two thirds of the portfolio is divided between Paris, Berlin and Milan, with an occupancy rate of 98.1%.
Covivio’s strategy is to develop partnerships with cities and corporations, such as Suez, Thales, Dassault Systèmes, Orange S.A., EDF, Accor Hotels, Telecom Italia, IHG and B&B Hotels. The group invests and develops both up and down the real estate value chain and can draw on a European development pipeline of €6 billion to support its growth plans. Sixteen percent of this pipeline consists of mixed projects that involve several real estate products.

History

Foncière des Régions is a holding company of real estate investment companies that own residential and commercial properties in 8 countries. Its business comes from the rental and leasing of properties, over 70% of which is office space in France and Italy. Its biggest clients are major companies, the largest of which is France Telecom, which rented half of Fonciere's office space in France. Other major customers are Telecom Italia and Electricite de France and IBM. The company has a 15% interest in France's biggest business park developer, Altarea SCA. Most properties are under its control; however, there are also about 60 properties that it has a minor stake in. Widely recognized properties include one of France's tallest skyscrapers Tour Gan and :fr:Carré Suffren|Carré Suffren in Paris.
Other assets include parking lots, retirement homes, warehouses hotels, medical facilities, and business parks.
Altogether the company had a market value of between €3.5 and €3.9 billion in 2010.
also known as CB21
Paris, France
Fonciere des Regions was created in 1963 as Garages Souterrains de Metz an operator of underground garages/parking lots.
Most growth happened in the 21st century beginning with key acquisitions and leaseback agreements with EDF, AXA, AGF between 2000 and 2004. In 2000 it acquired housing developer Sovakle. In 2004 the division dealing with hotels, Foncière des Murs was formed.
Fonciere des Regions's largest shareholder is currently Italian Delfin with a nearly 30% stake.
In 2018, Foncière des Régions became Covivio.

Operations

Through subsidiaries Fonciere operates in France, Italy, UK, Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium, USA and Portugal.
In 2010 rental income came mostly from the offices business segment but also from logistics operations and the service sector. Total revenues increased only in the service sector and Italian offices sector. Vancancies affected results from the offices business in France.
Divisions in order of size are
Foncière Développement Logements controls all of the company's French and German residential properties which include apartments and condominiums. SCI Marceau and Triname and Garonor France III are among numerous subsidiaries managed through the division.
Foncière des Murs is a SIIC that provides hospitality services in addition to its function as landlord of hotels and restaurants.
Foncière Europe Logistique is the subsidiary that controls assets relating to Logistics in France and Germany.

Activities in Europe

Covivio came into being in 2018 as the new name for Foncière des Régions, a French company set up in the early 2000s. The Covivio identity encompasses all the group’s operations in Europe.
Covivio invests in, develops and manages office buildings, hotels and housing in Europe and also creates services specifically for these spaces, tailored to its customers. These include concierge services, co-living and co-working.
In the Alexanderplatz district of Berlin, Covivio is developing a mixed-use urban complex of offices, co-working spaces, housing, services and shops.
All of Covivio’s new developments are certified and the whole portfolio has embarked on a process of ecodesign. In the area of CSR, Covivio, which has 922 staff in Europe, has also taken steps to promote gender equality within the group through the Ex-aequo programme, and to support young students from disadvantaged backgrounds in their schooling and their career, in partnership with the young people’s charity Article 1.
Covivio features in the EPRA and GPR 250 benchmark indices of European property companies and has received the EPRA BPR Gold Award for its financial and sustainable development reporting, a Carbon Disclosure Project rating of A and a Green Star in the GRESB rankings. It also appears in the FTSE4 Good, DJSI World and Europe, Euronext Vigeo, Euronext® CDP Environment France EW, Oekom, Ethibel and Gaïa ethical and ESG indices.

Activities and areas of expertise

Office property and co-working with Wellio

Covivio has an office portfolio worth €10.6 billion in France and Italy, amounting to a floor area of 3.6 million m²11. These assets achieve an occupancy rate of more than 97%.
In France, Covivio designs projects for new and refurbished offices in the Greater Paris region and in major regional cities such as Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseille, Toulouse and Montpellier.
Covivio’s investments in Italy are focused on the office market in Milan, which accounts for more than 70% of its Italian portfolio. In Milan, Covivio is developing the Symbiosis project, designed jointly with the city authority, which may eventually house 125,000 m² of offices and services.
In 2019, Covivio will deliver six office buildings in France and Italy and will continue work on several other projects.
Covivio is developing co-working spaces with its Wellio subsidiary, established in 2018. Four sites were open at the start of 2019, comprising a total floor area of more than 12,000 m². Another Wellio site will open its doors in Bordeaux in 2019, along with a further space on Milan’s Via Dante.

Hotel infrastructure with Covivio Hotels

The hotel business makes up 26% of Covivio’s portfolio. Covivio has formed partnerships with major European hotel groups and provides them with assistance in their leasing, real estate and operations projects, and with development initiatives. The group’s hotel portfolio is worth €5.8 billion and it works with 18 hotel operators and 30 brands, including Accor Hotels, B&B, IHG, Marriott, Radisson, NH, Motel One and Meininger. It has some 45,000 rooms in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands.
In 2018, Covivio paid €895 million to acquire 12 high-end hotels in major cities in the United Kingdom, including London, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Manchester.
As another example, Covivio is providing support to the Meininger hotel brand in its European development, with projects in Paris, Lyon, Munich and Milan. The group is also a partner of the Motel One brand, which opened its first hotel in France in Paris in 2018

Residential accommodation in Germany

Covivio has a residential portfolio of €5.8 billion in Germany via Covivio Immobilien. This equates to more than 41,600 housing units, mainly in Berlin. The group has set up a development activity and is planning new projects worth €700 million.
In the German residential sector, Covivio provides furnished apartments, serviced housing and co-living accommodation in Berlin. A further 3,000 rooms will be added by 2022 in vibrant districts of the city.

Sites in Europe

Covivio is a European group based predominantly in France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Spain.
At the end of 2018, the group had invested €1.9 billion in the major European cities. The group employs 922 staff in Europe.

Management