Day 1 of CEDEM 2016 took place was held yesterday in Hotel Mariott, Prague. The high-level speakers discussed the economic crossroads Europe now stands before. The morning’s Keynote Address was delivered by former Czech National Bank governor and KPMG partner Zdeněk Tůma, and was followed by a panel featuring UniCredit Bank’s Chief CEE Economist Lubomir Mitov, Chief Economist for the Czech Association of Banks (and former Czech National Bank council member) Eva Zamrazilová along with Wood & Co.’s Managing Director of Investment Banking Jiří Hrbáček. The panelists agreed that the mid-term prospects for Europe’s economy are good, but warned that with interest rates now rock bottom, the European Central Bank has very little it can now do to steer the Continent’s fortunes.
The conference continued with a discussion of the impact of private equity and local investment platforms on the investment market included Gihs Klomp (NEPI), Martin Skalicky (Edulios), Robert Neale (Portland Trust) and Ryan Wray (Knight Frank). They explored the impact that private equity and local investment platforms are having on the market in Central Europe.
Further panels followed in the afternoon, including a presentation of current hotel performance and investment indicators by the panel’s moderator Frederic Le Fichoux (Cushman &Wakefield). Panelists had an open and frank discussion of the perils of investing in the hotel sector, stressing the need to work with experienced operators and concluding strong management contracts. On the panel were Andreas Deutsch (Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich), Chris Eddis (Mornington Cap), and Bryan Wilson (Wilson & Partners).
This was followed by panel discussing International Retailing and Expansion in CEE featuring David Nekovař (PK Solvent), Martin Makovec (Unibail Rodamco), Martin Machac (Foot Locker Europe), Robert McLean (CIJ) and Matěj Bárta (M2C). The panel discussed not only the slowing growth of new retail development but how mall owners have to improve and modernize their offering, as well as think seriously about how to deal with the new security threats facing European shopping centers.
Pavel Sovička from Panattoni Europe, Jaroslav Kaizr from CTP, Ian Worboys from P3, Ferdinand Hlobil from Cushman & Wakefield and Michal Hlink from Dentons discussed the availability of labor for manufacturers and logistics operators in CEE and how this could end up limiting the potential for growth.
The last panel of the Day 1 feature Petr Herman (HB Reavis CZ), William Bucknell (Flow East), Petr Palička (Penta Investment), Tomáš Jandík (REICO), Marie Passburg (Skanska Property) and Eduard Forejt (JLL), who outlined the biggest challenges to office development in Prague. The biggest threat to the creation of new working space in the Czech capital, they claimed, is the difficulty of getting planning permission for projects. They voiced fears that it could soon become difficult to meet the demands of major corporations who are looking for locations in Central Europe, and that new job providers could pass over Prague as a result.
