MARCOL: strategic asset-management for third parties

16 September 2009

During stable economic periods, property owners use management companies to handle day-to-day procedures such as rent and services demands, repairs, lettings and other requirements associated with property revenue. In times of severe economic downturn, when assets have underperformed and devalued unusually, a very different and more strategic type of management service is required.

This service is a total business approach to the management of a property or portfolio and the corporate structures in which it is owned. It does not deal just with day-to-day management, but it includes a specifically designed, comprehensive service that assesses the individual needs of each asset and its unique circumstances.

It is just the type of asset management that MARCOL has been using to successfully enhance values throughout its own portfolios during the past 30 years. This places MARCOL in an ideal position to provide the same service to third parties, who do not have the same expertise or infrastructure in place.

In the UK the service will be aimed predominantly at banks and financial institutions, many of whom have had to intervene due to underperforming assets, a reduction in underlying security or failure of the property owning company. Many of these funding institutions are sitting on distressed assets hoping for an upturn in values, rather than cutting their losses, but they are relying only on market growth as they do not have the necessary expertise to add value by creatively managing each property.

In Europe there are even more angles as the markets are less mature and there are not as many property professionals as in the UK. Investors or funding institutions with underperforming assets in Germany or France, where MARCOL have a particularly solid infrastructure, will not have many options and could benefit greatly from local knowledge and experience.