JOHANNESBURG 21-22 APRIL

AFRICAGRI2015

MEDIA PARTNERSINDUSTRY PARTNERSBRONZE SPONSOR

INTERVIEW WITH FULVIA D’IPPOLITOFulvia D’Ippolito • Director for Africa

+44 (0)207 121 5072 | fdi@globalrealestate.org

GRI – Global Real Estate Institute

The 3rd Annual

Africa GRI 2015 • Interview with Fulvia D’Ippolito

www.globalrealestate.org/Africa2015J o i n t h e m o s t s e n i o r g a t h e r i n g o f r e a l e s t a t e l e a d e r s a t A f r i c a G R I

Q A&

Fulvia D’IppolitoDirector for AfricaGRI – Global Real Estate Institute

1. What’s GRI Africa?

GRI Africa is a day and a half of intense networking between real estate investors, developers, lenders from across Sub-Saharan African markets. They are also joined by large retail and hotel groups, and major corporate tenants. It’s the most senior real estate meeting in Africa; a unique platform for international and local players to meet, discuss and identify new investment and development opportunities.

2. How is it different from other African real estate investment events?

GRI is not a conference. Our format does not have speakers or panels. Instead, those taking part in the event can participate in many small discussion groups, animated by a ‘Moderating Chair’ and a selection of ‘Co-chairs’. The informality and enjoyment of the debates is like an after dinner conversation with friends in your own home. This format allows you to quickly make friends, find out what other people think and immediately identify those 4-5 new potential business partners or investment opportunities. GRI meetings have been running for nearly twenty years across the world. All of our attendees are considered as ‘members’ of our club.

3. Why Africa GRI 2015?

The interest in Africa from our international members Interest is strong, but they have also identified many difficulties in approaching the

market. And that’s where Africa GRI can help. GRI’s two previous annual meetings in Nairobi in 2013 and 2014 were a big success – drawing investors from the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia. Our international members asked us to hold the 2015 edition in Jo’burg, as the start of an ongoing geographical rotation of the event. But let’s be clear; Africa GRI is not a South African event. Far from it. It is truly pan-African, making it not only the most senior real estate event in Africa, but also the most diverse.

4. Who will be there in Jo’burg?

There is a ‘magic’ combination of exclusivity and seniority; a maximum of 150 people and all senior decision makers. The attendance is made of balanced mix of investors, developers and lenders, as well as some major hotel groups, retailers and corporate tenants. Of course we welcome some leading service providers as well. To date we have already on board the likes of Abraaj Group, Actis, China-Africa Development Fund, Nile Investments, Eris, Phatisa, Lordship Africa, Rendeavour, IFC, Jabilake. The list of participants growth day by day and is available to view on our site.

5. What are the main themes of the 2015 GRI Africa edition?

The event is split into four different rooms, each focusing on a geographic region; East, West, Lusophone, and Central/Southern Africa. Sub-Sectors discussed include hotels, offices, retail, resi and mixed-use. We have also introduced

some exciting new features. This includes an opportunity for developers to showcase their projects (which will include the impressive Bay of Luanda project in Angola), as well as specialist workshops on investing via Mauritius, and also a world-class tutorial for developers about securing bank lending.

6. Do you think that international sentiment towards the real estate African market is changing?

Yes, albeit slowly. Although both Ebola and terrorist threats have dominated the headlines in 2014, they seem to be less of a concern to international investors who have a longer term outlook. Of greater concern to many is a perceived lack of reliable data, instability of local currencies, and lack of institutional-scale portfolio buying opportunities. The data issue is certainly on the mend, with more and more reputable groups providing access to transparent, reliable information, and risk mitigation – including JLL, who are expanding their presence in the region. In terms of currency fluctuations; well, that might not go away any time soon. But, through a combination of hedging and off-shoring – investors are finding work-arounds. What is exciting investors is the number of new, large scale projects in the pipeline; many of which will be of institutional grade. If the real estate community can work effectively with their government and infrastructure partners, then there will be some huge projects coming to market in 2015/2016.