Gecina SA Announces Executive Changes, Effective from April 21, 2022
December 13, 2021 at 02:00 am
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Gecina SA appointed Beñat Ortega as Gecinas Chief Executive Officer. He will take over the position from Méka Brunel, Director and Chief Executive Officer, whose term of office is scheduled to expire, in accordance with the bylaws, at the end of the General Meeting on April 21, 2022. Beñat Ortega, 41 years old and École Centrale Paris alumni, is currently a member of the Executive Board, Chief Operating Officer and a corporate officer with Klépierre, a leading European listed retail real estate company with a 22 billion euro portfolio. He joined Klépierre in 2012 and since then he has lead its operational activities. He has played a key role in its transformation through the portfolios refocusing around 120 leading shopping malls and an ambitious value creation and cash flow growth strategy. He previously spent nine years in Paris with the Office teams of the listed group Unibail-Rodamco. Beñat Ortega will count on all of Gecinas teams, and particularly Nicolas Dutreuil and Valérie Britay, Deputy CEOs, and Frédéric Vern, General Secretary. After graduating from École Centrale Paris in 2003, Beñat Ortegajoined the Unibail-Rodamco Groups Office division, as part of its Paris-based asset management and investment team, and progressed through the ranks until he led this team from 2010. He managed an office portfolio of around 3 billion euros and was involved in a numerous operations, including the merger with Rodamco in 2007, the acquisition of a 7.25% stake in Société Foncière Lyonnaise, and various development operations, including Tour Majunga in La Défense and So Ouest and So Ouest Plaza in Levallois-Perret. In 2012, he was appointed as Deputy Chief Operating Officer of Klépierre Group, a listed real estate company, that is part of CAC Next 20, with a portfolio of 120 shopping malls valued at 22 billion euros at June 30, 2021. He developed a culture of operational excellence and performance. He worked on Corios acquisition in 2014 and coordinated its rapid and successful integration within Klépierre, while generating synergies. He was appointed as Chief Operating Officer in 2016, then became a corporate officer and member of the Executive Board in 2020. Under his leadership, his teams, representing around 1,000 staff across 12 countries in Europe, rolled out an ambitious commercial, digital and local strategy, while delivering revenue growth. Alongside this, he headed up its Act For Good strategy, enabling Klépierre to be ranked first in its sector worldwide for CSR in 2020 and 2021 in the GRESB benchmark, thanks in particular to a 82% reduction in carbon emissions since 2013 and a portfolio that is 100% BREAM-in-Use certified.
Gecina is a leading French real estate company. Gross rental income breaks down by type of asset as follows:
- offices and commercial spaces (80.1%);
- residential buildings (16.5%);
- student facilities (3.4%).
At the end of 2023, the group's real estate holdings amounted, in market value, to EUR 17.1 billion distributed between offices and commercial spaces (78.9%), residential buildings (20.9%) and other (0.2%).