Sirius Real Estate appoints CIO and new CFO

RNS Number : 0580A

Sirius Real Estate Limited

31 January 2022

 

SIRIUS REAL ESTATE LIMITED

(Incorporated in Guernsey)

Company Number: 46442

JSE Share Code: SRE

LSE (GBP) Share Code: SRE

LEI: 213800NURUF5W8QSK566

ISIN Code: ISIN GG00B1W3VF54

31 January 2022

Sirius Real Estate Limited

("Sirius Real Estate", "Sirius" or the "Company")

SIRIUS APPOINTS A Chief Investment Officer (CIO) AND A NEW Chief Financial Officer (CFO) AS IT PREPARES FOR CONTINUED GROWTH

Alistair Marks appointed to CIO and Diarmuid Kelly appointed to CFO

Sirius Real Estate, the leading owner and operator of branded business and industrial parks providing conventional space and flexible workspace in Germany and the UK, announces two changes of roles within its senior management team. 

Alistair Marks, current Chief Financial Officer, will be taking up the newly created role of Chief Investment Officer ("CIO"), while Diarmuid Kelly, current Group Finance Director, will join the Company's board of directors as Chief Financial Officer ("CFO"). Alistair Marks will continue to be a member of the Company's board.

These two appointments, together with the creation of the role of Chief Operations Officer ("COO") and Chief Marketing and Impact Officer ("CMIO") in 2021, complete a restructuring of the senior management team to reflect the significant expansion of the business in recent years, including the Company's entry into the UK market with the acquisition of BizSpace in November 2021. The appointments also provide a strong framework to enable Sirius to achieve its ambitions for future growth and the continued development of its platform. Both appointments will become effective on 1 February 2022.

Alistair Marks joined Sirius in January 2007 and took the Company through its IPO in 2007. Since then, he has been responsible for the financial management of the Group, its capital structure and all investment activity and, prior to the creation of the COO role, was responsible for asset level operations. During his tenure, the Company's capital structure has been transformed to include corporate debt, whilst a series of capital investment programmes have resulted in significant income and capital value creation.

In his new role as CIO, Alistair will focus on the Group's investment activity, covering acquisitions, disposals and capex investment programmes, utilising his significant experience in the industrial, office and business parks sector, as well as deep operational experience and expertise to identify and execute on a wide range of opportunities that unlock value for the Group.

Having been with the Group since 2015, and after serving as Group Finance Director, Diarmuid Kelly has been appointed to CFO. Diarmuid has worked directly alongside Alistair for more than six years and, as the Group has grown, has taken on additional responsibilities relating to the Group's audit and financial processes, as well as debt financing and investor relations activities. Diarmuid has over 18 years' experience in financial management within the professional services, investment management and sovereign wealth fund sectors including as Head of Financial Control, Hospitality, Real Estate at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. Diarmuid has a Master's degree in International Management from the University of Exeter and is a Fellow Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA).

Commenting on the appointments, Andrew Coombs, Chief Executive Officer of Sirius Real Estate, said: "Over the past few years, and in spite of the pandemic, Sirius has continued to perform well operationally and also to grow. This has been achieved through a combination of direct acquisitions and asset management, as well as through our Titanium joint venture with AXA IM Alts and, most recently, via our entry into the UK with the acquisition of BizSpace. Our new management structure ensures we have the right people in the right roles to further enable us to achieve our goals and continue to grow our platform.

"Both Alistair and Diarmuid have been with the business for a significant amount of time and have continually outperformed in terms of delivering on their objectives. The role of CIO allows Alistair to focus on growing our portfolio by utilising his long standing and market leading expertise in the industrial and business parks sector. At the same time, Diarmuid has been responsible for extensive parts of the Group's finances for some time, working closely alongside Alistair, and is the obvious candidate to take ownership of the business critical aspects of the Group's financial operations. I am delighted with Alistair agreeing to take on his new role, for which he is supremely qualified, and I would like to congratulate Diarmuid on his well deserved appointment to the board as CFO. "

The announcement has been made in accordance with requirements of the Listing Rule 9.6.11R of the Listing Rules published by the Financial Conduct Authority (the "Listing Rules").

No further disclosures are required under LR 9.6.13R of the Listing Rules with respect to this appointment.

Diarmuid and any 'persons closely associated' with him, have a beneficial interest in 292,257 ordinary shares of no par value in the Company. 

- ENDS -

For further information:

Sirius Real Estate

Andrew Coombs, CEO / Alistair Marks, CFO

[phone] 

FTI Consulting  (Financial PR)

Richard Sunderland / Claire Turvey / James McEwan / Talia Jessener

[phone]

[e-mail] 

NOTES TO EDITORS

About Sirius Real Estate

Sirius is a property company listed on the main market and premium segment of the London Stock Exchange and the main board of the JSE Limited.  It is a leading operator of branded business parks providing conventional space and flexible workspace in Germany and the UK. The Company's purpose is to create and manage optimal workspaces that empower small and medium-sized businesses to grow, evolve and thrive. Sirius seeks to unlock the potential of its people, its properties, and the communities in which it operates, so that together we can create sustainable impact, and long-term financial and social value.

The Company's core strategy is the acquisition of business parks at attractive yields, the integration of these business parks into its network of sites under the Company's own name as well as offering a range of branded products within those sites, and the reconfiguration and upgrade of existing and vacant space to appeal to the local market, through intensive asset management and investment. The Company's strategy aims to deliver attractive returns for shareholders by increasing rental income and improving cost recoveries and capital values, as well as by enhancing those returns through financing its assets on favourable terms. Once sites are mature and net income and values have been optimised, the Company may take the opportunity to refinance the sites to release capital for investment in new sites or consider the disposal of sites in order to recycle equity into assets which present greater opportunity for the asset management skills of the Company's team.

Sirius also has a venture with clients represented by AXA IM Alts. Titanium was originally formed in 2019 through the acquisition by AXA IM Alts, on behalf of its clients, from Sirius, of a 65% stake in five business parks across Germany. Sirius retained the remaining 35%. The venture has added significantly to its portfolio and continues to seek to grow primarily through the acquisition of larger stabilised business park assets and portfolios of assets with strong tenant profiles and occupancy. As well as its equity interest, Sirius acts as operator of the assets in the venture, on a fee basis. The strategy of the venture has been clearly defined so that the venture does not conflict with Sirius's existing business, which continues to focus on the acquisition of more opportunistic assets for its wholly owned portfolio, where it can capitalise on its asset management expertise to maximise utilisation of the space, grow occupancy and improve quality of the tenants.

In November 2021, Sirius Real Estate announced and completed the acquisition of BizSpace, a leading provider of regional flexible workspace in the UK. BizSpace offers light industrial, workshop, studio and out of town office units to a wide range of businesses across the UK and the acquisition therefore provided Sirius with a unique opportunity to enter, immediately and with scale, an under-served new market for Sirius through a one-step acquisition of an established platform. It provides the Group with a high-quality portfolio, offering significant organic growth potential in rental pricing in a UK market characterised by supply constraints. The BizSpace business is also highly complementary to Sirius' existing platform, allowing for meaningful operational and financial synergies to drive value creation for Sirius shareholders.

For more information, please visit: www.sirius-real-estate.com

Follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/siriusrealestate/

Follow us on Twitter at @SiriusRE

JSE Sponsor

PSG Capital

 

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