One United Properties (BVB: ONE), the leading green investor and developer of residential, mixed-use, and office real estate in Romania, announces the conclusion of a new important leasing contract in the office segment: Global Business Solutions (GBS), the largest shared services centre of the BAT group and one of six globally, is moving its offices from Romania to One Cotroceni Park, Phase 2.
The new offices of BAT GBS, the service centre that serves on European and global level BAT subsidiaries, will occupy an area of 10,500 m2 in One Cotroceni Park Phase 2. This is one of the highest-performing real estate developments in Bucharest that benefits from LEED Platinum v4 pre-certification, attesting to sustainable operation and minimal environmental impact, and WELL Health and Safety certification, which assesses health and well-being at work. BAT GBS provides financial, human resources, IT, and other services to the entities of the BAT group, the largest player in the tobacco industry on the Romanian market, with a market share of over 50%. BAT Romania currently has over 3,000 employees in the four economic entities of the group - BAT Trading, the commercial entity, BAT Investment - the production plant in Ploiesti, and BAT GBS and BAT GBS Recruitment - the shared services centres of the group - and generates more than 30,000 jobs in the distribution chain.
"One Cotroceni Park is shaping up to be the new office hub of Bucharest, with well-known big companies that have already relocated their offices and one more important name joining them. The fact that a large international company, an important player on the services market in a highly competitive industry such as BAT GBS chooses to move its headquarters to One Cotroceni Park proves that, in a time of multiple challenges, One United Properties is an active player in the office segment. We offer certified products, built according to the most modern technologies, friendly to the environment and to the tenants, and providing integrated facilities that clearly contribute to retention and add real value to the processes of companies in the park", said Mihai Păduroiu, CEO Office Division One United Properties.
"We are excited about our new offices, which encourage different ways to innovate and work together, with spaces for collaboration and creative interactions - an important aspect for our global integrated services centre (BAT GBS Romania). The new offices will be structured to facilitate hybrid experiences of connection and work, through new technologies and space design that supports interactivity. We chose this location to offer BAT GBS Romania employees an experience that invites them to come to the office, collaborate and enjoy special moments with their colleagues. The new location also allows us to advance our sustainability goals, thanks to the various facilities of the One Cotroceni compound, focused on ESG – an aspect that I support, and which is very important to our entire centre and to BAT's mission to build a better future", says Mario Calero Leyva, General Manager BAT GBS Romania. "We are very excited about this move. We have been thinking about changing our offices for a long time and now we have the opportunity to offer our teams a modern setting, based on new technologies that encourages innovation and process simplification, in a suitable setting for this "new normal" and beyond", Mario Calero Leyva, General Manager BAT GBS Romania also added.
The transaction was brokered by Knight Frank Romania, with the direct involvement of two of the most senior representatives in the local real estate market, Horațiu Florescu and Roxana Bencze."It is a great pleasure to be the agent for this transaction, the largest in the market this year. It was also a record from the point of view of the period of making the final decision, of about 6 months. The demand for office spaces in Bucharest in the nine months of 2022 was 15% higher compared to the same period last year, reaching 218,000 sqm, which shows us the constant importance of the physical offices for the optimal functioning of organizations", Knight Frank Romania representatives added.
At the moment, 87% of the office and commercial spaces in Phase 1 and 55% in Phase 2 have already been leased, with major companies choosing One Cotroceni Park as headquarters. Among them are Ford, which opened the Ford Business Solutions Centre, Siemens Energy, which leased a space of 7,500 square meters for 10 years, Superbet, DB Cargo, SII Romania, Caroli and others. The new business pole on the map of Bucharest now brings together large companies and teams, who need spacious, modern workplaces, as well as integrated facilities that support and encourage employees' return to the office. Equally, their interest in One Cotroceni Park leads to a paradigm shift: while the northern part of the city has been an area of high interest for renting offices, now, with the development of new centres, with new infrastructure, located closer to central and residential areas of the city, companies tend to reconsider their options for such business parks.
Developed on the site of the former Ventilatorul platform, on an area of 5.8 hectares, One Cotroceni Park is shaping up as the most ambitious urban regeneration project in Bucharest, which aims to renew the entire area by integrating office and residential buildings with mixed services intended to serve both the residents and the tenants, as well as to bring added value to the area and the whole community.
Following recent acquisitions, the company's office portfolio has a GLA of 103,000 sqm of office space and will reach a GLA of 138,000 sqm after the delivery of One Cotroceni Park Office Phase 2 by the end of 2022. These GLAs already exclude those 18,000 sqm of one of the buildings within One North Gate office compound, which has been announced to be converted into a residential development, One North Lofts. Together with the retail portfolio (which mainly includes Bucur Obor and One Gallery), One United Properties' total commercial rental portfolio will reach a GLA of nearly 180,000 sqm.
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ONE UNITED PROPERTIES is the leading green investor and developer of residential, mixed-use and commercial real estate in Bucharest, Romania. One United Properties is an innovative company dedicated to accelerating the adoption of construction practices for energy-efficient, sustainable, and healthy buildings. All the company’s buildings have superior certifications for sustainability, energy efficiency and wellness, and the developer has been awarded at numerous galas and conferences in the field. One United Properties is the first real estate developer in Romania to be internationally awarded, being the recipient of the “Best Sustainable Residential Development” in the world at the International Property Awards 2019-2020. The company is listed on the Main Market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, with the symbol ONE and its shares are included in multiple BET and STOXX indices, the FTSE Russell Global All-Cap index, which follows the most liquid shares in the world, and the FTSE EPRA Nareit EMEA Emerging index, which tracks the evolution of companies in the real estate sector in emerging markets.
About BAT globally
BAT is a leading, multi-category consumer goods company whose goal is to build a better future (A Better Tomorrow™) by reducing the impact on health, which entails a commitment to provide adult consumers with a wide range of low-risk products*.
The company continues to make clear that cigarettes cause major health risks and that the only way to avoid them is to stop smoking. BAT encourages those who continue to smoke to switch completely to scientifically proven lower risk alternatives*. To achieve this, BAT is transforming itself into a truly consumer-centric multi-category FMCG business.
BAT's aim is for 50 million consumers to choose its tobacco-free products by 2030 and to generate £5bn of revenue from new categories by 2025. BAT has set several ambitious targets to sustainability, such as a 50% reduction in carbon emissions for Goals 1, 2 and 3 by 2030 compared to the 2020 baseline: making all packaging from reusable, recyclable or compostable plastic by 2025.
BAT has more than 52,000 employees and operates in more than 175 countries. BAT Group generated revenues of £12.87 billion in the first half of 2022 and an operating profit of £3.68 billion.
The company's strategic portfolio includes its global cigarette brands and an expanding category of reduced risk* tobacco and nicotine products, as well as traditional smokeless tobacco products. These include e-cigarettes, tobacco heating products, modern oral products, including tobacco-free oral nicotine products, as well as traditional oral products such as snus and wet snuff. In the first half of 2022, 20.4 million consumers chose BAT products that do not involve burning tobacco, an increase of 2.1 million compared to the previous year.
*Based on existing evidence and assuming full transition from smoking to these products, which are not without risk and are addictive.
