We were honoured to win the Global Real Estate Investor of the Year award at the 2023 IPE Real Estate Global Conference & Awards, held May 16th in Milan.
This award recognizes the work and professionalism of all our teams globally, and we salute the daily commitment of the women and men who implement our strategy. It particularly highlights our achievements in recent years and the successful transformation of our business model to prioritize our role as an investor and to reposition our portfolio in the most promising sectors.
The jury commented: “There is so much that is being done right at Ivanhoé Cambridge, that one does not know where to start. In the past two years alone, it has truly stood out by demonstrating extreme agility in massively repositioning its footprint in response to post-COVID structural changes in the global real estate market.”
Over the past three years, our strategic transformation materialized through 250 transactions totalling C$27 billion. Our C$77 billion portfolio is now more geographically and sectorally diversified, thus strengthening our resilience and performance. In fact, more than half of our 2022 performance was generated by investments less than five years old.
Our investment strategy widely recognized
Since 2020, portfolio construction has been at the heart of our transformation, and we were proud to receive the Portfolio Construction award. In particular, the members of the jury highlighted that our “portfolio optimization is very strong, based on forecasting and comparisons between underwriting, asset managers and appraisers”. Indeed, we embrace a perpetual cycle where we define, test, and challenge our convictions while quickly transitioning to the optimal portfolio allocation.
Our global investment strategy received top honours in the Opportunistic and Value-added categories. These were welcome recognitions as our opportunistic approach accounts for more than half of our investment plans over the next four years, and our value-added strategy represents 11 % of our efforts.
In 2022, Ivanhoé Cambridge invested and committed more than C$ 6 billion in new opportunistic investments and developments and more than C$ 2.5 billion in new value-added strategies. This mainly included commitments in residential, logistics, and projects and properties linked to life sciences and technology in a large variety of markets.
Ivanhoé Cambridge also won three regional awards:
- Investment in Asia Pacific where we committed more than C$3.2 billion and completed 15 transactions, with a focus on the residential, logistics, and life sciences sectors.
- North America and Investment in North America, our portfolio’s largest region by far. In 2022, we invested C$10 billion and completed 34 transactions as we focused on diversification and resiliency while embedding ESG at every step.
These accolades shine a spotlight on our diversification strategy and are a testament to the expertise and drive of our local teams.
Our performance over the last few years shows that we are now positioned in the right growth sectors and that we are fully capable of weathering headwinds. Our new organizational structure based on geographical hubs, implemented early in 2022, was instrumental in giving us greater flexibility and increased synergies in our portfolio-building and investing strategies.
Sustainable investment at the heart of our mission and vision
Our desire to rethink the real estate of the future has also led us to fully integrate sustainable investment and ESG factors into our decision-making. Our commitments and our results in that field were lauded by the jury as we won the ESG award and the Environmental Sustainability award.
Our ambition remains to be carbon-neutral by 2040. Our efforts and actions in recent years have already yielded results. By the end of 2022, we had reduced the carbon intensity of our portfolio by more than 30% compared to 2017, and we made more than C$3.3 billion in new low-carbon investments between 2020 and the end of 2022. Finally, 60% of our properties have received at least one “green” certification in recent years.
Our commitment, however, is not limited to environmental and climate issues. We are also looking to make a meaningful and lasting difference within our communities by promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and increasing our impact on affordable housing.
Going forward, we intend to maintain this innovative approach to sustainable investment for the benefit of our property occupants and employees. We will continue to optimize our portfolio to meet the needs of tomorrow while seeking to achieve superior relative performance in order to create value for our depositors.
The full list of awards and winners is available on the IPE Real Estate website: Winners 2023: IPE Real Estate Global Conference & Awards 2023 (swoogo.com)