Real estate management

When it comes to value-based company management, real estate is becoming ever more important, in both private and public life. It has quite a major effect on assets and costs. And, in the final instance, it is the second largest cost block in value creation terms, which means real estate needs to be managed actively and professionally.

Real estate plays an increasingly important role in value-based corporate management. Since it is the second-largest cost item after labor, it has a considerable influence on assets and costs. Active and professional real estate management is therefore a must. However, the right conditions for doing so are rarely in place:

• Large, diverse property portfolios are not managed in a focused way
• Comprehensive long-term programs are impossible since analyses are conducted only for individual properties
• Real estate, corporate and business segment strategies are not aligned
• Tasks are not clearly split between owners, operators and users
• The lack of intercompany billing for services leads to non-transparent cost structures
• Maintenance costs and other expenses are often not professionally managed

Our project approach emphasizes real estate's role as a strategic success factor. Boosting a real estate portfolio's value in the long term means making costs transparent, systematically managing the portfolio and optimizing risk and return.

Aligning real estate strategy with the overall corporate strategy forms the basis for coordinating asset, portfolio and facilities management and their corresponding systems. Systematically planning, managing and monitoring all real estate activities boosts efficiency and performance while retaining value. In addition, needs-based and value-based portfolio management can increase liquidity.

In a project for a leading European telecommunications group, we reorganized their entire real estate and facility management divisions, with a portfolio of over 13 million m² of floor space. We centralized and streamlined several areas, including: operating processes, floor space management, structural repairs and maintenance, internal customer/provider structures and the scope of services. At the same time, we prepared and supported the sale of the internal FM service provider to a leading international construction company.

As part of the merger of two large German banks, we worked with our client to realign the group-wide real estate management. We also supported the integration of the real estate divisions. This meant realigning the corporate real estate management (CREM) strategy, optimizing structures and processes and adjusting the requirements of the combined portfolio, which comprised over 2,000 properties with over 2.5 million m² of floor space. What's more, we provided intensive support in combining the office locations. The resulting space savings yielded one of the largest synergy contributions of the merger.

Our project for a leading logistics and transportation company had two goals. We needed to design an investment model and also find the optimum transaction form for a high-volume real estate portfolio with around 1,900 individual properties. This involved researching and selecting a partner for a joint venture at the international level with the necessary financial and real estate expertise, as well as drafting a detailed business plan. Furthermore, we helped our client design the organizational structure and set up the new joint venture.

We assisted Europe's largest university hospital in awarding an integrated contract for its entire facility management function. We first developed a business model detailing the creation of a service company with a minority stake held by an external service provider. We then helped conduct the call for bids and prepare the tender documentation.

We developed a pan-European strategy for expanding the service portfolio of the world's leading food service company. Our approach was to systematically set up a new business model for support services, both in technical and infrastructure facility management. This included drawing up a detailed business plan and conducting due diligence as part of the planned growth by acquisition in this segment.