NEPI Rockcastle looks beyond CEE for next phase of growth

You are both stepping into new roles within the company. What are your key priorities going to be?

Marek Noetzel: The first priority is to align the team and make adjustments at the executive level, so the organisation reflects our ambitions. At the same time, I want to engage with investors early on. We had meetings shortly after my appointment, and the feedback was very supportive. The succession was seen as natural, and the market reacted well to the fact that leadership changes were coming from within the company.

Looking ahead, the focus remains on growth. We continue to rely on our four engines, strategic pillars for growth. The first is extracting value from the existing portfolio through reinvestment, extensions, refurbishments and active asset management. The second is M&A, where Anca plays a key role. The third is development, although this will naturally be more limited over time as large-scale opportunities are finite. The fourth is new sources of income, with energy being the most important.

We have a strong development pipeline, over €840 million, with projects like Promenada Bucharest and others in the queue. At the same time, we are starting to think more broadly about future growth. Given our size, it is increasingly difficult to grow purely through acquiring high-quality assets within our current region. Over time, we will need to look beyond our comfort zone.

Another priority is strengthening our visibility in capital markets and broadening our investor base. We continue to benefit from strong and consistent support from South African investors, but we also see an opportunity to engage a more diverse pool of capital.

All of this needs to be done while maintaining discipline on the balance sheet. The strategy itself is not changing, but we are operating in a volatile environment, with geopolitical risks affecting energy prices, inflation and funding costs. We may adjust tactically, but the overall direction remains the same.

Anca, what would you like to add from an investment perspective?

Anca Nacu: The focus remains clearly on growth, but through a balanced approach. We are combining value creation within our existing assets, development and acquisitions.

On the acquisitions side, we are very selective. We focus on large, leading centres where our asset management platform can make a real difference. The track record of recent acquisitions shows that this approach works, both in terms of NOI growth and valuation uplift.

At the same time, we are looking at improving the overall quality of the portfolio. This means that for assets that have reached a certain level of maturity, where further value extraction is limited, or in markets where we no longer see strong strategic relevance, we may consider rotating capital. The idea is to redeploy that capital into opportunities where we can generate more value.

It is a high bar to maintain, especially after more than €1 billion of acquisitions in recent years, but we will continue to follow the same disciplined approach.

Are you looking beyond your core CEE markets?

Anca Nacu: CEE remains our core market, but given how selective we are, it is not always easy to find the right opportunities at the right pricing.

This is why we have started to look at other geographies with similar characteristics in terms of macroeconomic fundamentals, consumer behaviour and tenant landscape. At the moment, we are looking at Southern Europe, including Iberia and potentially Italy.

The intention is not just to invest, but to build a presence where we can integrate platforms and leverage our experience and tenant relationships, so that we can create synergies across markets.

Retail has proven more resilient than many expected. Where does this resilience come from?

Marek Noetzel: Retail is ultimately a function of how people behave. As long as we are social and want to meet, interact and spend time together, there will always be demand for physical retail. What changes is how that space is used.

What we see clearly is that tenants who are able to combine physical retail with strong digital capabilities are the ones performing best. E-commerce and physical stores are not competing but supporting each other. There are many examples where opening a physical store in a catchment area increases online sales as well.

At the same time, the way we manage assets has changed significantly. It is no longer about signing long leases and waiting. The market moves faster, so you need a much more dynamic approach. You need to constantly adjust your tenant mix, follow trends and reinvest.

If you don't, assets become obsolete. We have seen examples of shopping centres that were once strong but are now closed or being repurposed. That is why continuous improvement is critical.

You mentioned data earlier. How does that influence your decisions?

Marek Noetzel: Technology today allows us to track customer behaviour in a very detailed way. We can understand where customers spend, how they move within the centre and what they are missing.

This gives us a significant advantage. For example, if we know what our customers are buying outside our centres, we can identify which tenants we should bring in.

We also conduct detailed catchment analysis and have direct interaction with customers through tools like our loyalty app, SPOT, which already connects us with hundreds of thousands of users. This allows us to tailor the offering and move away from mass marketing towards more targeted, sales-driven activities.

At the same time, tenants themselves are becoming increasingly data-driven. Some of the most successful retailers are essentially technology companies, with highly sophisticated systems that allow them to optimise their offer at the store level. That is where a lot of the performance difference comes from.

Earlier, you highlighted energy as a key pillar of your growth strategy. What can you share about your plans in this sector?

Marek Noetzel: There are multiple reasons why we are investing in energy. First, it is financially attractive, with returns higher than traditional property investments. Second, it increases our resilience in a volatile environment, where energy prices can fluctuate significantly. And third, it supports our ESG goals.

We have already tested this model successfully and are now scaling it up. We are installing solar panels across our portfolio and developing larger projects, including greenfield power plants in Romania. We are also adding storage capacity, which allows us to produce, store and use energy more efficiently.

Our ambition is to build a business that generates between €50 million and €70 million annually on a net basis, which would make it a material contributor to the company's earnings.

Finally, where would you like the company to be in five years?

Anca Nacu: We have grown from a company focused on Romania and Poland into the leading player in CEE. The next step is to become a more significant player at the European level.

We want to be recognised not only for our scale but also for the quality of our assets and platform, and to remain a preferred company for investors.

Marek Noetzel: We want to grow further, but always with a strong focus on quality rather than simply increasing size. We could grow faster by acquiring lower-quality assets, but that is not our approach.

If we can reach a scale of over €10 billion with the right assets (€8.2 billion portfolio value as of December 2025), that positions us differently and opens up new opportunities. At the same time, maintaining a strong balance sheet, consistent strategy and a stable team is key.

Ultimately, long-term success comes from building trust with investors over many years, so that they continue to support the company as it evolves and enters new markets.