He will be working closely with Mr. Remon Vos, CTP’s CEO, and Mrs. Andreea Odovîncă, the company’s CFO for Romania, in order to secure development, increase the market share and grow the company’s profitability.
Mr. Richard Wilkinson will be directly involved in defining the group’s financial strategy in order to support and improve CTP’s international performances and to strengthen the growth directions implemented by the other departments within the company. Mr. Wilkinson will represent CTP during the negotiations with investment banks for obtaining credit facilities, and also in the discussions with the investors and financial partners. As Group’s CFO, he will support CTP’s continuous and accelerated growth and the achievement of the established targets, such as reaching an international total lettable area of 10 million m² by 2020, with an estimated growth rhythm of 1 million m² per year. Another important goal is to increase CTP’s portfolio of clients.
Mr. Richard Wilkinson attended London School of Economics, the third most prestigious economic university in the world, and has an extensive professional experience. His career is marked by the nearly 30 years spent at Erste Group in Vienna, where he executed various senior management roles before taking over as Chief of the Commercial Real Estate Division in 2011. From this position he led Erste Group to the leading position in CEE on its segment of activity.
“I am proud to have joined CTP’s team, a company that I got to know well and whose business vision and progress I have always appreciated. I am looking forward to using my experience to support the growth plans of one of the most successful and dynamic real estate companies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Currently we have a portfolio of over 450 clients and excellent opportunities to expand our business in the region. I highly appreciate CTP’s commitment to offer above market standards and to provide its tenants with a complete package of dedicated services that exceed the normal duties of an industrial and logistics spaces developer. I want to help CTP to achieve its growth targets and to do that one of the first steps will be to implement new IT and accountancy systems. Secondly, I will improve and deepen the funding bases needed to develop CTP under the best conditions", said Mr. Richard Wilkinson, CFO of CTP
According to Mr. Wilkinson, in what concerns the trends impacting the countries where CTP operates, the Czech Republic and Slovakia remain the favoured locations for production and storage activities of companies from countries with strong economies such as Germany and Austria. Romania and Hungary are focusing on the business services sector. Romania is in a strong process of strengthening the infrastructure from building new roads to improving the existing ones.
“While the Czech Republic has a relatively complicated process for obtaining building permits, Romania is currently more open to new projects and investments. This is reflected also in the yearly declining unemployment rates, as well as in the GDP’s (Gross Domestic Product) growth, expected to be better in comparison with other countries in the region”, explained Mr. Wilkinson.
The new CFO pointed out that the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio (the ratio between the value of a loan and the estimated value of the property used as a guarantee by the investor) across the entire portfolio of 95 properties is 49%.
“As the company grows in size and strength on the markets where we operate, CTP will need to adapt its platform even better to local conditions. We rely on the know-how of our local teams throughout different countries in order to fortify our position in each region”, concluded Mr. Richard Wilkinson.
