ORCO
Encyclopedia
Orco Property Group S.A. (ORCO Group, ORCO) is a French real estate development company founded by Bernard Gauthier
together with Jean-François Ott, owned mainly by ORCO Holding and, for tax reasons, based in Luxembourg
, Parc d'Activités Capellen
.
, mainly in Central and Eastern Europe
an (CEE). It develops real estate markets of Croatia
, Czech Republic
, Germany
(Berlin
, Duisburg
, Düsseldorf
, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg
and Munich
, expanding the groups' focus also into ripe markets of Western Germany
, Berlin fitting into the CEE strategy), Hungary
, Poland
, Russia
, and Slovakia
.
The company was established in Luxemburg and started its activities in the Czech Republic in 1991. In 1999 its expansion to other countries began by investing in Budapest
. Since 2000 the company is listed on Euronext
, Prague
, Budapest
and Warsaw Stock Exchange
, next to Paris (main listing) and Frankfurt
.
(4.33%) and Jardenne Corporation S.a.r.l. (4.22%); 80.3% of shares were on free float.
In 2008 the stake of Jean-François Ott, owned through his Ott & Co, decreased to 1.6% on a compulsory sale due to his liquidity problems. The once majority holder – at the IPO in 2001 his stake was 94%, since then gradually declining – became the fourth-largest shareholder in Orco. According to the company report, the US private equity fund European Investors became the new biggest shareholder with 5.4%. Bernard Gauthier and Jardenne Corp. held 2.5% each; the rest, some 88 percent, were on free float.
In the beginning of 2009 the Czech-based investment fund Prosperita became the largest shareholder with over 5%, closely followed by European Investors fund with 4.7%, a subsidiary of B with 4.2%, Bernard Gauthier with 1.9%, and Ott & Co, the investment vehicle of Jean-François Ott, holding on his 1.6%.
Also in the beginning of 2009 SOS Orco an association of minority shareholders (claiming in mid 2009 to represent some 14% of shares) was established in Prague, aiming to join together interest of investors from the Czech Republic, France, Austria and other countries.
ČTK
's sources say further that "Orco struggles a high degree of indebtedness ... Orco's debts total as much as some EUR 1.6 bn ... under a six-month court protection against creditors, with management expecting a possible extension by several weeks ... at the same time in talks about capital investment with US firm Colony Capital and is undergoing restructuring. Orco said ... to focus its future activities on Prague and Berlin."
In 2008 and 2009, after the latest (as of 2009) real estate bubble crash
, Czech Business Weekly (CBW) reported problems within the Czech subsidiary – in June 2009 Orco being "still on the verge of bankruptcy and, despite being under protection of a Paris court, might not survive the year without a capital increase from a new investor" and about Jean-François Ott's "talks on a capital increase with U. S.-based investment fund Colony Capital".
In the beginning of 2009, ORCO owned 56.8% of ORCO Germany, which issued a statement of being "no more dependent on the ORCO Group after a successful restructuring during the last year". Shortly after in April 2009, ORCO Germany dimished slightly the personal role of Jean-François Ott, replacing him by his Ott & Co. and inviting to its board Steven Davis
and Aleš Vobruba, Prague members of the ORCO Group board.
, the Endurance Real Estate Fund (Endurance Fund), with (in 2009) six sub-funds for each area and/or region of interest. It is structured (or scheme
d) as a regulated Luxembourg Fonds with RBC Dexia Investor Services Bank as a custodian bank
.
Bernard Gauthier
Bernard Gauthier is a retired French road racing cyclist, who was professional from 1947 to 1961. He won Bordeaux–Paris four times.-Major victories:1947...
together with Jean-François Ott, owned mainly by ORCO Holding and, for tax reasons, based in Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, Parc d'Activités Capellen
Capellen
Capellen is a town in the commune of Mamer, in south-western Luxembourg, 12 km west of Luxembourg City. , the town has a population of 1,336...
.
Structure, operations
ORCO operates, through its subsidiariesSubsidiary
A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...
, mainly in Central and Eastern Europe
Central and Eastern Europe
Central and Eastern Europe is a term describing former communist states in Europe, after the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989/90. In scholarly literature the abbreviations CEE or CEEC are often used for this concept...
an (CEE). It develops real estate markets of Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
(Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Duisburg
Duisburg
- History :A legend recorded by Johannes Aventinus holds that Duisburg, was built by the eponymous Tuisto, mythical progenitor of Germans, ca. 2395 BC...
, Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
and Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, expanding the groups' focus also into ripe markets of Western Germany
Western Germany
The geographic term Western Germany is used to describe a region in the west of Germany. The exact area defined by the term is not constant, but it usually includes, but does not have the borders of, North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse...
, Berlin fitting into the CEE strategy), Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, and Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
.
The company was established in Luxemburg and started its activities in the Czech Republic in 1991. In 1999 its expansion to other countries began by investing in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
. Since 2000 the company is listed on Euronext
Euronext
Euronext N.V. is a pan-European stock exchange based in Amsterdam and with subsidiaries in Belgium, France, Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom. In addition to equities and derivatives markets, the Euronext group provides clearing and information services...
, Prague
Prague Stock Exchange
The Prague Stock Exchange or PSE is the Czech Republic's main securities market and currently the second biggest stock exchange in Central and Eastern Europe...
, Budapest
Budapest Stock Exchange
The Budapest Stock Exchange was re-opened in 1990 with headquarters in Budapest, Hungary.BSE is the key institution of the Hungarian Financial market and the official trading venue for publicly offered securities....
and Warsaw Stock Exchange
Warsaw Stock Exchange
The Warsaw Stock Exchange , , is a stock exchange located in Warsaw, Poland. It has a capitalization of € 220 bln .The WSE is a member of the World Federation of Exchanges and the Federation of European Securities Exchanges.-History:...
, next to Paris (main listing) and Frankfurt
Frankfurt Stock Exchange
The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is the world's 12th largest stock exchange by market capitalization. Located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is owned and operated by Deutsche Börse, which also owns the European futures exchange Eurex and the clearing company...
.
Ownership
In 2007, according to company report, the major shareholders were Orco Holding S.A. (11.15%), Bernard GauthierBernard Gauthier
Bernard Gauthier is a retired French road racing cyclist, who was professional from 1947 to 1961. He won Bordeaux–Paris four times.-Major victories:1947...
(4.33%) and Jardenne Corporation S.a.r.l. (4.22%); 80.3% of shares were on free float.
In 2008 the stake of Jean-François Ott, owned through his Ott & Co, decreased to 1.6% on a compulsory sale due to his liquidity problems. The once majority holder – at the IPO in 2001 his stake was 94%, since then gradually declining – became the fourth-largest shareholder in Orco. According to the company report, the US private equity fund European Investors became the new biggest shareholder with 5.4%. Bernard Gauthier and Jardenne Corp. held 2.5% each; the rest, some 88 percent, were on free float.
In the beginning of 2009 the Czech-based investment fund Prosperita became the largest shareholder with over 5%, closely followed by European Investors fund with 4.7%, a subsidiary of B with 4.2%, Bernard Gauthier with 1.9%, and Ott & Co, the investment vehicle of Jean-François Ott, holding on his 1.6%.
Also in the beginning of 2009 SOS Orco an association of minority shareholders (claiming in mid 2009 to represent some 14% of shares) was established in Prague, aiming to join together interest of investors from the Czech Republic, France, Austria and other countries.
Property value, bubble crash of 2007/08
ORCO Group valuated its property portfolio to EUR 2.7 billion in the first half of 2008, down from 2,95 million EUR reported in 2007. As of June 2009 ORCO's real estate portfolio value fell to EUR 1.83 billion from EUR 2.13 billion in the previous period according to the company's report.ČTK
CTK
CTK may refer to:*ČTK, Czech Press Agency ; before 1993 Czechoslovak Press Agency *CTK - CiTylinK , an airline based in Accra in Ghana...
's sources say further that "Orco struggles a high degree of indebtedness ... Orco's debts total as much as some EUR 1.6 bn ... under a six-month court protection against creditors, with management expecting a possible extension by several weeks ... at the same time in talks about capital investment with US firm Colony Capital and is undergoing restructuring. Orco said ... to focus its future activities on Prague and Berlin."
In 2008 and 2009, after the latest (as of 2009) real estate bubble crash
Real estate bubble
A real estate bubble or property bubble is a type of economic bubble that occurs periodically in local or global real estate markets...
, Czech Business Weekly (CBW) reported problems within the Czech subsidiary – in June 2009 Orco being "still on the verge of bankruptcy and, despite being under protection of a Paris court, might not survive the year without a capital increase from a new investor" and about Jean-François Ott's "talks on a capital increase with U. S.-based investment fund Colony Capital".
Czechia
In 2003 ORCA, through its Czech subsidiary, purchased the Czech leading property group IPB Real.Germany
ORCO Germany S.A., with some 200 employees, and listed at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, has been founded by Rainer Bormann and operating in Germany since 2004. Its main business areas are commercial property, asset management and project development. In 2006 ORCO Germany acquired Viterra Development and its activities and property in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich. In June 2007 ORCO Germany overtook the Gewerbesiedlungs-Gesellschaft (GSG) of Berlin, as ORCO-GSG expanding its real estate managed assets to over 1 million square metres of developed and undeveloped space there, with 44 commercial areas and centres and 235 residential units.In the beginning of 2009, ORCO owned 56.8% of ORCO Germany, which issued a statement of being "no more dependent on the ORCO Group after a successful restructuring during the last year". Shortly after in April 2009, ORCO Germany dimished slightly the personal role of Jean-François Ott, replacing him by his Ott & Co. and inviting to its board Steven Davis
Steven Davis
Steven Davis is a Northern Irish association footballer who currently plays for Scottish Premier League club Rangers and the Northern Ireland national team...
and Aleš Vobruba, Prague members of the ORCO Group board.
Investment Fund
In 2005 ORCO founded its own privately owned closed end property (fonds commun de placement - fonds d'investissement spécialisé) fundMutual fund
A mutual fund is a professionally managed type of collective investment scheme that pools money from many investors to buy stocks, bonds, short-term money market instruments, and/or other securities.- Overview :...
, the Endurance Real Estate Fund (Endurance Fund), with (in 2009) six sub-funds for each area and/or region of interest. It is structured (or scheme
Scheme
Scheme may refer to:* Scheme , a minimalist, multi-paradigm dialect of Lisp* Scheme , a concept in algebraic geometry* Scheme , a figure of speech that changes a sentence's structure-See also:...
d) as a regulated Luxembourg Fonds with RBC Dexia Investor Services Bank as a custodian bank
Custodian bank
A Custodian bank, or simply custodian, is a specialized financial institution responsible for safeguarding a firm's or individual's financial assets and is not likely to engage in "traditional" commercial or consumer/retail banking such as mortgage or personal lending, branch banking, personal...
.