Swiss Prime Investment Foundation: Marcel Hug appointed Managing Director
There are personnel changes at the Swiss Prime Investment Foundation (SPA). Marcel Hug is to become the new Managing Director; interim Managing Director Urs Bracher will return to his duties as a member of the Board of Trustees.
Marcel Hug, member of the Executive Board at Helvetica Property Investors, will take up his new position as Managing Director of the SPA from November 2018 at the latest, writes Swiss Prime Investment Foundation in its report on the second quarter of 2018. The Board of Trustees has also been reconstituted: Jérôme Baumann has been elected Chairman of the Foundation Board with effect from 1 August 2018. Martin Neff, President of the Foundation Board ad interim, is retiring to the position of Vice President.
SPA also reports good results for the SPA Real Estate Switzerland investment group for the first half of 2018. The net asset value increased by 1.6 percent to CHF 1,088.23 per claim compared to year-end 2017. The leverage ratio was 25.5 percent and the fair value of the real estate portfolio was just under 1.5 billion at the end of June 2018. Around 50 percent of the portfolio is residential real estate, the most recent acquisition being a residential property on Chemin du Champ-Baron in Geneva.
The vacancy rate fell to 4.55 percent in the first half of the year, with half of the vacancy attributable to the "Riverside" development site in Zuchwil, according to SPA. In May, the Zuchwil municipal council decided to open the land-use planning for the project to the public, so the rezoning of the site is "well on track", SPA writes.
An issue with a volume of up to 250 million is planned for the third quarter. The opening of the investment group is scheduled for mid-August to mid-September 2018. (ah)
