The new share that can be traded on the Zagreb Stock Exchange is that of Quattro Logistics after the listing of 32,500,005 ordinary shares was approved. This is a relatively unknown company founded by Interkapital Securities in May last year, and just two months later, in July, Quattro Logistics was taken over by PBZ Croatia Insurance (60 percent) and Erste Plavi (20 percent) as well as Croatia Insurance (20 percent).
The main activity of the company is investing in industrial and logistics real estate in Croatia and the region. The share capital is 325 million kuna, and the composition of the supervisory board is also respectable. The chairman of the supervisory board is the renowned tax expert Hrvoje Zgombić, his deputy is Karlo Došen, the director of treasury and accounting at HT and a former member of the management board of Petrokemija, and the members are Tomislav Pokaz, advisor to Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and chairman of the supervisory board of Petrokemija, Toni Jeličić-Purko, CEO of Stanovi Jadran and son of the well-known investment expert Miroslav Jeličić-Purko and Damir Čukman, founder and CEO of the investment company N3 Capital Partners.
The reason for the establishment of Quattro Logistics could not be disclosed by its director Dalibor Fell, but just two months later, right when the funds and insurance company took over the company from Interkapital, Quattro Logistics became the owner of the company Business Park Zagreb (PPZ), which has four halls intended for storage, repackaging, and distribution of goods, as well as a restaurant in the business zone of Sveta Nedelja. This is a warehouse-logistics complex that spans almost 230,000 square meters, just 500 meters from the Bregana-Zagreb-Lipovac highway and only six kilometers from Zagreb and the border with Slovenia.
– The location of Business Park Zagreb provides excellent traffic connectivity as it is located at the first exit from the A3 Bregana-Zagreb-Lipovac highway from the direction of Zagreb towards Western Europe, and nearby is also the Zagreb bypass that connects Zagreb with Maribor, Graz, Budapest, and Belgrade. The PPZ halls are leased long-term to high-quality tenants, namely international and regional companies, which ensures a historical occupancy rate of almost 100 percent – says Fell.
Online shopping is driving demand for warehouses
Fell believes that the commercial real estate management sector in Croatia is attracting increasing interest from the investment public, given that Croatia is on a transit route between numerous European and international trade routes. Customer preferences are also changing; they want to receive goods the same day or very quickly, and as a result, the need for higher stock levels will only grow, along with the need for larger warehouse spaces near the center of Zagreb. Additionally, he adds, the quality of infrastructure and traffic routes also contributes to the attractiveness of this sector.
– The logistics sector is strongly influenced by the secular trend of strengthening online shopping, which requires much more modern warehouse space than traditional retail stores, and the global COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated the trend towards online shopping and strengthened the position of logistics centers. According to an analysis by Franklin Templeton, in the coming years logistics companies expect a significant increase in demand for quality warehouse spaces, given that companies engaged in online shopping have approximately three times the need for warehouse space compared to traditional retail chains – says Fell, highlighting the fact that online stores need 1.2 million square feet of warehouse space for every billion dollars in revenue.
