Immorent to rev up investments

Bogdan Cernescu, 31, the newly-appointed general manager of Immorent Romania, the domestic branch of the leasing division of the Austrian group Immorent, says the group’s investments in real estate projects will intensify this year, following the establishment of Immorent Project.
Cernescu was recruited by Immorent, a division of Erste Bank, from BRD Sogelease, where he held the position of commercial manager.
“We want to conduct our first real estate development project this year, through Immorent Project. To this end, we are interested in acquiring land, with our main targets being Bucharest and cities with over 200,000 inhabitants,” said Cernescu. He took over as general manager at the beginning of June, replacing Harald Trinkl, who will handle the development of leasing operations for Central and Eastern Europe at Immorent Aktiengesellschaft.
The new manager will coordinate leasing services, the development of real estate projects and local cooperation with the group’s real estate division, Sparkassen Immobilien AG. The company’s other managing director, Anina Iordache, will be responsible for operations, reporting and accounting at a group level.
Immorent entered the Romanian market in 2004, with the leasing division Immorent Romania IFN. At the end of 2006, Immorent Project was set up to develop real estate projects and ensure technical support for the investment fund Sparkassen Immobilien, the investment arm of the Austrian group Erste.
“Immorent Project handles project development, project planning, construction site management, as well as supplying technician teams for Sparkassen Immobilien and for the leasing operations of Immorent Romania,” stated Cernescu. Sparkassen Immobilien announced it would allocate 500 million euros for projects in Romania, having acquired a 97,000 square-metre area of land in Jilava, near Bucharest, for around 7.2 million euros, where it intends to build a shopping centre with an investment of 50 million euros.