The outsourcing project of the powerful German bank represents an important event and marks the transformation of Romania in a back office hub, call-center and cards processing for big European bank groups.
This year Deutsche Bank decided for a big step entering the Bucharest office market with two requests: one for new headquarters, with an area of approx. 500 sqm and another for 5,000 – 6,000 sqm, with extension possibilities in a further step to 10,000 sqm.
In the first phase the project involves up to 600 employees, the Germans contacting for this purpose recruiting companies. The new centre will insure firstly the development of informatics capabilities, followed by the transfer of more complex back office facilities for the German group.
According to real estate market information, the analysed projects by the Deutsche Bank representatives include the towers City Gate in Presei Square and the business park West Gate in Militari, but more sources say that the Germans finally would have selected the UpGround project in Pipera, developerd by the Greek businessman Ioannis Papalekas and sold in 2008-2009 to RREEF, the real estate assets management division controlled by Deutsche Bank itself.
UpGround includes two office buildings – BOB and BOC Tower, and Deutsche Bank would be interested by a space in BOB, recently left vacant by the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank for their new headquarters in Sky Tower and Floreasca Office Building.
„Twelve tenants occupy spaces in BOB building and another (an international financial institution) agreed to rent approx. 10,000 sqm office space in two phases (June 2013 and June 2014)“, the listing prospect to London AIM stock of Globalworth company, founded by Papalekas, shows.
Accoring to Zf information, the mentioned financial institution would be Deutsche Bank itself, but Papalekas and the local representatives of the German bank did not comment on the information by far.
„This is the most discreet market research I have ever assisted to “, says the manager of one of the real estate companies with an important office administration portfolio. „They came on the market with 5,000- 6,000 sqm office request and analysed a lot of possibilities“, the manager also declared.
Deutsche Bank was looking for an office space for its service centre in a large office project or a business park with several buildings, in order to be able to extend. The rents for BOB Tower are approx. EUR 12-14/sqm/ month and the office costs in Bucharest are currently among the lowest compared to other European capital cities.
UpGround project in Pipera includes two residential buildings with 600 units and two office buildings, BOB and BOC Tower,with a total rentable area of more than 80,000 sqm, having tenants such Banca Românească, Intel, HP, Nestlé, ENI or Medicover.
According to Trade Registry data, BOB Development company, which includes in its portfolio the building BOB Tower, is owned by the companies Oystermouth Holding Limited (78%) and Dunvant Holding (22%), both registered in Cyprus. The annual 2012 report of Deutsche Bank writes that Oystermouth Holding is a subsidiary of the German group. The Ministry of Finance data shows that the company realized EUR 5 million turnover in 2012. (source: zf.ro)
