Atterbury Europe celebrated its fifth birthday this year, and it has been a journey that CEO Henk Deist describes as extraordinary. He recalls some of the highlights… 

How long has Atterbury Europe been operational now and can you give us the highlights of your journey to date?
Our Dutch holding company was formed in October 2014 and to date it was a most extraordinary journey… so much so that you’d need a book to share all the highlights and challenges – and it would definitely need to be specifically marketed as “non-fiction”, for the journey had some “unreal” moments along the way!

Why was Leiden in the Netherlands chosen as the location for the centre of operations?
The excellent business-friendly environment and shared history with South Africa lead us to choose the Netherlands as headquarters; and specifically Leiden as it is close to Schiphol airport and conveniently located for the Atterbury Europe team members. We then also chose to name our new Atterbury Europe newsletter Vastgoed, which means “immovable property” in Dutch … very appropriate, we believe!

What was the first ever project that Atterbury Europe handled and when was the decision taken to bring a team over from South Africa?
Our first acquisition was in July 2015 in Cyprus, together with Attacq, followed by a Serbian acquisition also with Attacq, in December 2015.

During 2016 we acquired some other malls in Serbia and also increased our stake in the initial acquisition. It was during 2016 that we took the relocation decision and the first staff arrived in the Netherlands at the end of that year.

Can you share some of the milestones since then?
In Atterbury Europe’s history so far 2017 was quite a noteworthy year: in March of that year we bought out Attacq from all the investments and in June we joined forces with the Iulius Group and formed our Romanian joint venture, which was our biggest investment to date. On a personal note, in August 2017 my family and I arrived in the Netherlands.

We were honoured to welcome RMB Holdings (“RMH”) on board as a shareholder in the beginning of 2018. By the middle of that year we obtained additional funding from FirstRand and when institutional investor Pareto joined as a shareholder in July 2019, we repaid the FirstRand loan.

Somewhere in between all of this, we sold half our stake in Serbia, expanded the Mall of Cyprus, and started construction on a mall in Belgrade with our Serbian partners, which will open in April 2020. And, of course, the official opening of our new mixed-used development Iulius Town in Timisoara with our Romanian partners, the Iulius Group, took place on 30 August 2019.

How has the South African team adapted to life in Europe, and has the team changed since the beginning?
Raoul de Villiers did pioneering work in Europe, but he is now back in South Africa. In our Leiden office we currently have CFO Martin Olivier, Group Accountant CJ Wegner, and David Downes, who looks after our funding. Asset manager Vlad Valcea is our only non-South African employee; from Romania, and his job entails a lot of travel between all our assets, with occasional visits to head office. Our development manager, Roux Gerber, lives in Bucharest; while Ansu Kretzmann, who is in charge of legal and tax, operates from Doha in the Middle East.

We’re a small team, so working well together is very important and I believe we get that right most of the time by good and open communication and having a lot of fun. When the sun is out in the Netherlands, we close the office and go to the beach! (Don’t worry, it doesn’t affect our productivity noticeably: sunshine is a rare commodity in the Netherlands!)

How would you describe your main focus areas currently?
Over the last 18 months we focused on restructuring and strengthening our balance sheet and getting new shareholders on board, but because we have strong in-country partners, business on the ground could progress pretty much uninterrupted.

I now feel quite a sense of duty to deliver results and be accountable to our institutional shareholders RMH and Pareto, both of which are represented on our board, and also to our individual shareholders.

Where do you see the growth coming from in the foreseeable future?
The value appreciation I believe will come from delivering on our substantial development pipeline, capturing opportunities to increase net operating revenues at our existing malls and optimising “in-country” gearing structures to increase liquidity. We are invested in growth jurisdictions, but the biggest challenges in my mind are securing the liquidity to fund the growth and to stay one step ahead of increasing competition.