ICSC’s 2015 European CEO Forum analyses the financing of the European retail real estate industry – EuropaProperty

More than 30 representatives from Europe’s most active and influential retail real estate owner, developer and investment companies including Klépierre, Unibail-Rodamco, ECE, Union Investment, Bouwfonds and TIAA Henderson Real Estate recently came together at the annual International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) European CEO Forum in Frankfurt, to discuss the industry’s biggest ongoing trends.

Dr Wolf Schumacher, CEO of Aareal Bank who hosted the CEO Forum, opened the event with a presentation on how to shape effective strategies to ensure sustainable success followed by a panel discussion when industry leaders discussed the commercial real estate banking landscape in the current regulatory environment.

This year’s meeting focused on the financing of the industry with presentations by Kenton McKeehan, CEO Retail at Hines and Andrew Vaughan, CEO of Redevco on financial and investment models followed by a roundtable discussion on the changes these models will experience in future years.

Multi Corporation’s CEO, Jaap Blokhuis and Josip Kardun, CEO of Atrium European Real Estate also analysed the changing role and identity of the European shopping centres before discussing the potential need to reposition or rebrand them with the audience.

Among the speakers, Rachel Botsman, Co-Author, of What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption presented the key elements of today’s “Sharing Economy” and the reason why ‘’people value access over ownership”.

ICSC’s President and CEO Michael Kercheval said: “Europe’s major players are here today which proves the recognition and the importance of this event to the retail industry and I applaud the extraordinary quality of the presentations.”

The Chair of ICSC’s European Advisory Board, Alexander Otto, said: “It is a great ICSC initiative and it represents the perfect opportunity for Europe’s top CEOs to discuss the issues that have an impact on the market, and the best practices to overcome the different challenges faced in the industry.”