BFM Business: You explain that you have always aimed to meet the expectations of the most demanding investors. But what do you really offer them? What approach have you chosen to develop to better support them?
Laurent Boissin: Indeed, since its creation, PERIAL Asset Management has made an effort to offer products in line with savers’ expectations.
And sometimes even to anticipate them. Thus, PERIAL Asset Management launched in 2009 the SCPI PFO2, which incorporates an environmental approach at the heart of its investment and asset management strategy. The SCPI is now one of the 10 largest SCPIs in the market and was labeled SRI real estate in 2020.
We also began to geographically diversify the assets of some of our SCPIs towards Europe in 2017, which offers a good distribution of rental risk to our investors and allows them to invest in markets that are difficult to access for individuals.
In the last two years, we have also launched two new funds to meet investors’ expectations: the SCPI PF Hospitalité Europe, invested in the accommodation real estate markets (Ehpad, student residences, hotels, etc.) which responds to the large demographic needs of European cities. The PERIAL Euro Carbon SCI launched last year is the first low-carbon SCI on the market, it is labeled as SRI and accessible in UC, through life insurance contracts.
Finally, we are constantly enriching our service offer for our clients, with, for example, an ultra-flexible scheduled reinvestment offer, or a digital subscription process or new services in the coming months.
BFM Business: Despite the various lockdowns and the health crisis, the SCPI market has shown its resilience. How do you explain it?
Laurent Boissin: In a context still disturbed by European geopolitical tensions, the scarcity of raw materials and high inflation, the real estate sector is emerging as a safe haven.
The very nature of our funds explains this resilience. The buildings in which the SCPIs invest are tangible assets, which we carefully section off and are occupied by tenants who were also able to benefit from the support during the acute crisis period. Diversification, both typological (different sectors of activity) and geographical (in France and Europe) also brings together the rental risk. Finally, the indexation of rents to reference indices constitutes a shield against inflation.
The average returns recorded in the market during and after the crisis continue to attract investors looking for long-term investments.
The latest collection figures published by ASPIM illustrate this enthusiasm with collection records: €5.2 billion in the 1st half of 2022 for ISPA and €2.5 billion for LIC spread over UC.
BFM Business: Today’s investors are increasingly turning to the idea of making sense of their savings. Real estate is no exception to the rule. how do you respond to them?
Laurent Boissin: Today more than 80% of the real estate portfolio that we manage is covered by the SRI real estate seal. Our goal is to reach 100%. This is not an achievement of PERIAL Asset Management, but rather the extension of a pioneering approach to these issues, which began upstream of the market more than 10 years ago. We are aware that real estate is at the center of the main problems of our societies, be they environmental, social or governance.
Regarding concrete actions, the SCI PERIAL Euro Carbone mentioned above is developing an innovative low-carbon strategy through actions to optimize, reduce and offset the carbon emissions emitted in each of its buildings. After PFO2, the first SCPI with an environmental dimension on the market, the SCPI PF Grand Paris obtained the SRI label at the beginning of 2022 thanks to a new and innovative urban biodiversity program that includes the creation of a unique indicator aimed at measuring the improvement of local biodiversity in its building stock. In addition, the PERIAL group has given itself a purpose in 2021 that affirms our convictions and guides our actions.
All of these approaches illustrate our ambition to continue to be involved in transforming real estate to make it more efficient and sustainable, in order to deliver the best possible performance for our clients and reduce our impact for all.
Source: BFM TV
