Griffin Real Estate is the largest, privately owned most active and innovative investment and asset manager in private equity specialized in real estate in CEE, originating and introducing several new concepts and formats to the market. The Company invests and manages its investment platforms on behalf of both its owners and its renowned international investors and strategic partners – several global investment funds such as Oaktree Capital Management, Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO), Redefine Properties, Kajima Corporation, WING, Madison International Realty and Ares Management Corporation.

Griffin Real Estate strategy is to create or acquire platform companies that are the leaders of their markets and by developing adequate strategies and strong management teams to build their value through organic growth. Over the last several years, Griffin Real Estate has been the most active and innovative investor in the region, with a strategic focus on the Polish market. The gross asset value of Griffin-managed investments across ten different platforms exceeds EUR 5 billion with a total invested equity over EUR 2 billion.

The investment platforms consist of:

• Echo Investment – the biggest Polish developer in the commercial real estate sector and one of the largest in the residential sector, listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since 1996, which has completed over 174 projects with a total area of approximately  1,800,000 sq m located in many Polish cities.
• EPP – the largest REIT-type company listed on stock exchanges in Johannesburg and Luxembourg, focused on Poland-based retail properties with a total GLA of over 1,000,000 sq m. Currently the company is the largest owner of shopping centers in Poland. EPP portfolio includes 32 retail projects, 6 offices and 1 planned mixed-use development project in 18 major cities across the country. The total value of the EPP portfolio amounts to over EUR 2,6 billion.
• Murapol Group – a leading residential properties developer in Poland which has been operating in the multi-family housing sector for 19 years, completing over 100 investments at that time, and the portfolio of projects with more than 5,720 apartments with total usable area of more than 244,000 sq m under construction as at the end of June 2020.
• European Logistics Investment (ELI) – a dynamically developing logistic platform. ELI entered into strategic alliance with Panattoni Europe, a leading developer of industrial real estate. ELI’s portfolio includes 16 assets with total GLA of over 500,000 sq m (plus 160,000 sq m under construction and ca. 2,000,000 sq m in the pipeline).
• Resi4Rent – the first and the largest residential for rent platform in Poland with over 2,300 in operation and under construction units and ca. 1,400 apartments in advanced permitting stage coming online within next 18-24 months. The platform’s traget is to operate 10,000 units by 2025 in major Polish cities.
• Student Depot – Poland’s first and the leading  student housing developer and operator with over 2,400 beds in operation and around 1,800 beds in design phase. The platform currently operates 6 student houses in Warsaw, Gdansk, Lodz, Lublin, Poznan and Wroclaw and 3 additional assets will be delivered within 2 years.
• Chariot Top Group B.V. – a consortium of three independent funds which acquired a portfolio of 28 real estate assets consisting of 9 M1 shopping centers, 12 hypermarkets, 4 power parks and 3 stand-alone DIY stores. The value of Chariot portfolio amounted to ca. EUR 1 billion with a total GLA of about 704,000 sq m.
• Polcom Group – a Poland based fully-integrated manufacturer and provider of premium fully-furnished steel-framed modular building system and interiors for hospitality industry. Polcom Group has proven track record confirmed by numerous executed projects in prestigious locations (such as London, New York, Seattle, Calgary) for leading blue-chip international hotel chains (such as Marriott, Hilton, Intercontinental, etc.).
• Smyk – an iconic children’s brand with a 93 percent brand awareness, exceptional brand trust and clear market leadership in the children product’s market. Smyk offers the widest range of children’s clothing and footwear, toys, school accessories, books, multimedia, baby accessories and other products for children aged 0-14. Smyk Group operates in Poland through an e-commerce platform and mobile app, which are combined with over 200 own brick&mortar stores in Poland. Smyk also operates in Romania (17 stores), Ukraine (12 stores) and in the Middle East (10 franchise stores). In 2016, Smyk group was acquired by a consortium with Bridgepoint from Eastbridge Group and Penta Investments.
• Griffin Property Finance – the largest non-banking real estate-related lending platform in Poland providing senior stretch/mezzanine financing.

In Q 4 2017/Q 4 2018, Griffin Real Estate successfully sold its total stake in Griffin Premium RE.. (currently Globalworth Poland). With a successful IPO executed in Q 1 2017 Griffin created a unique platform in the Polish real estate market with the largest and the only WSE listed yielding Polish pure play with a focus on high quality office and high street mixed use assets with an integrated internal local value add management platform IPO GAV of over 0.7 billion, market capitalization of over 230 million.

http://www.griffin-re.com/en

Cornerstone Partners is an investment management company, active in non-real estate private equity market in Poland since 2001. Combined track record of Cornerstone’s partners is proven by more than 60 companies to exit with an average IRR of above 35 percent. Cornerstone invests in private equity transactions in Poland and CEE with a focus on backing strong management teams to grow and transform their businesses.

The prominent investments of Cornerstone’s managing partners include several investments in healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors (such as Lux Med, the leading outpatient clinics network in Poland that was eventually acquired by BUPA / UK), investments in retail and consumer goods (such as leading Polish brands EMPIK and SMYK and joint-ventures with Zara, Sephora, Chanel and Dior), industrial, manufacturing and infrastructure (such as Kęty, Relax Wind, Budimex, DTH Capital / New York, Immobel, Domy Towarowe Centrum and many others).

In January 2016, in a consortium with Bridgepoint and Griffin Real Estate, Cornerstone acquired the Smyk Group – a leading retail network of stores with toys, clothes and accessories for children in Poland and operating in Germany, Ukraine, Russia and Romania – from Eastbridge and Penta Investments. The transaction value was EUR 250 million. Cornerstone Partners is a partner of Oaktree’s European Principal Group in sourcing, executing and supporting equity transactions in Poland and other CEE countries.

In February 2016, the partnership made an acquisition of ProService Finteco (former ProService Agent Transferowy), the leading fund administration services provider in Poland, with PLN 62 billion in assets under administration, in order to build European fintech offering middle office and IT services for TFI, banks and insurance companies. In order to achieve this goal, in 2016 and 2017 Cornerstone had made several add-on acquisitions of smaller companies, among others: Aspartus (which provides insurance companies with software for handling property, life and communication products), Bonair (an IT company specializing in asset management solutions), IFAS (specializing in valuation of funds). In 2018, ProService Finteco acquired two more companies – Makeitright and Turbine Analytics (which operate on the market of process automation tools for banks, insurance companies and SSC/BPO centers).

Moreover, in June 2017, Cornerstone Partners enlarged its portfolio through acquisition of IT Kontrakt, the company providing high-quality services in outsourcing of IT professionals and innovative IT solutions that are comprehensively supporting business processes. Along with the acquisition, Cornerstone Partners together with Oaktree Management launched the Avenga – a software engineering platform operating in the US, Germany and Poland with approx. 2,500 IT specialists focusing on support for automotive, financial, insurance, pharma & life sciences, and real estate clients, which since then has been extended by the next acquired companies, as follows: 

• In October 2018, IT Kontrakt acquired 51% stake in SolidBrain, and the remaining shares will be acquired in 2019. SolidBrain is a leader on the market of IT outsourcing services in Poland, offering both outsourcing IT specialists and services of project management, development and software testing.
• In February 2019, IT Kontrakt acquired a majority stake in CoreValue. CoreValue is an IT outsourcing company based in the United States, providing traditional Cloud based CRM implementation services and Mobile applications to industries such as Pharmatech, Healthcare, and Finance. The development centers of the company are located in Ukraine and Poland, and deliver solutions to Fortune 500 companies, as well as to medium and large enterprises in the United States and Europe.
• In June 2019, the IT Services Competence Platform expanded to include another recently acquired company – Sevenval Technologies, a leading German consultancy for digital transformation with a strong digital user experience and technology background. The acquisition will strengthen the presence of the Platform on the DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) market.

Cornerstone Partners also owns a minority stakes in Bombardier Transportation Rail Engineering – the Poland’s largest rail engineering company (since 2010) and E-TOTO, Poland’s third largest betting company (since 2014).

http://www.cornerstone.pl

The Eastbridge Group is a family holding company based in Luxembourg and created in 1990 by its founder, Yaron ‘Ronny’ Bruckner. Throughout its history Eastbridge has invested in multiple markets and diverse industries such as real estate, consumer products, media, retail, education, insurance and biotechnology. Eastbridge, although being a family-controlled business, has had several renowned financial investors over the course of its history.

The genesis of Eastbridge was the change of the political and economic systems in the Central & Eastern Europe region. Thereafter, in early 90’s Eastbridge formed several distribution joint ventures with leading global companies including L’Oreal, Eastman Kodak, Nestle, Canal+, Inditex/Zara, LVMH , PPR (now the Kering Group) and many others.

Out of this activity, in mid-90’s Eastbridge has developed a strong Private Equity practice, which focused mainly on food & beverages, healthcare, retail and consumer goods business in Central Eastern Europe. Eastbridge has invested in and developed several leading consumer brands as well as introduced many international brands to CEE markets. Part of the portfolio has been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2004, as one of the largest Polish consumer goods conglomerates. This activity has been continued until early 2016. Eastbridge had more than 30 corporate exits within the sector, with over 30% IRR achieved.

In 1998, Eastbridge has been the investor behind privatization of Domy Towarowe Centrum, one of largest retail and real estate conglomerates in Poland at the time. Due to this fact Eastbridge has developed strong real estate practice in Poland, with its Centrum Development and Investments subsidiary being one of the most active high street retail investors in the country.

In 2003, Eastbridge started its investments in the New York City, US. Eastbridge has been purchasing several iconic buildings in lower Manhattan, transforming the old historic buildings from offices into multifamily rental residential use. Eastbridge owns currently several trophy assets, such as 63 Wall Street, 67 Wall Street, 20 Exchange Place, 70 Pine Street (former AIG headquarters) in New York. Its New York subsidiary, DTH Capital, has been one of the most active investors in the market over last years.

In 2007, Eastbridge started investing in real estate outside of Poland, among others, in the Benelux. In 2010, Eastbridge acquired Immobel, a leading Benelux developer listed on EURONEXT in Brussels. After expanding the company’s activities into new market – Poland, Eastbridge exited from Immobel investment at the end of 2015.

http://www.eastbridgegroup.com/