BSS News

Property & Facility Management slowing pace.

29-06-2011

Curierul National

The Romanian Facility&Property Management market is young, with a 15 year history and it continuously grows. Yet, during 2010 and 2011, the strong growth trend flattened a bit. 

"A relatively young market, the Romanian Facility & Property Management showed a continuous growth trend, although in 2010 and 2011 the growth attenuated" said Lucian Anghel  -  BSS (Building Support Services) Managing Director, an active company in this industry. According to the company representative, the local Property & Facility Management market reached an estimated value of 200 million Euro and, for this year, a growth of 5-7% only is expected".                                                                                   

How did the crisis change this market? "The crisis brought changes to all economy sectors, thus in this area certain things changed as well". From Anghel's point of wiew, a major issue during the last two years is the pressure on costs relating to the buildings' maintenance and operation, meaning cuts of these costs. Expenses control and reducing the energy consumption, without altering the tenants' comfort and service quality, these are now essential FM objectives, as clients have an eye on these and demand more service quality.                                                                                                               

Positive prospects for the FM sector. Developments in this industry largely depend on the coming financial evolutions related to the sovereign debt crisis in certain EU states. According to Anghel, latest market data indicate a slight increase of the local Real Estate sector, compared to the two previous 2010 semesters, nurturing hopes for a medium term growth for the second 2011 half, 2012 and on. This durable, but not salient growth, may favorably influence the FM sector as well.                                                                        

BSS - Building Support Services is the third company on the market, by turnover, with a 6% market share. For this year, the company executives expect a 50% growth in turnover. Besides this growth, the company aims to extend its client portfolio and number of operated locations by 30% at least. Facility & Property Management is about managing office, commercial, inustrial, logistic and residential buildings. Presently, there are more than 400 registered companies supplying FM professional services, main local players being UTI Facility Management, ISS Facility Services, BSS - Building Support Services, Coral Construct and MT&T.

What the Romanian and Polish buildings have in common? Both their management costs amount to 200 million Euro/year.

24-06-2011

Wall Street                                                                      

The value of the local Property & Facility Management market in 2010 amounted to about 200 million Euro in Romania, on even with the Polish market, the engine of the growth being the office segment. For this year, analysts estimate a 10% growth, at most, for this sector. 
                                                                                                                                   "A realistic value of the local Property & Facility Management market would be around 200-205 million Euro, 10% more than in 2009" says Adrian Balasu, Marketing & Sales Manager at BSS-Building Support Services, one of the most important players on the market. Out of this amount, about 30% result from office space management, the sector which fuels the FM growth, followed by the logistic space management. About 70-75% of the FM market is concentrated in the Capital city-Bucharest". And, "if in 2010, the sector's growth was 10%, for 2011 estimations are more cautious. We hope to have a 5% growth at least this year, as more office buildings, totaling 200 thou. sqm. will be delivered in the second half, as well as new logistic and retail spaces", added Balasu [...]

Klaus Reisenauer, shareholder in the Oasis company-a shopping center developer- compares the Romanian FM market with the similar German market in the 80s. "Relating to FM services only, those performed by specialized companies, we may say that the (development) level of this segment is still insignificant, at about 20% of the value that will be reached in the next 7-10 years on", says Reisenauer.

Last year, BSS posted a turnover figure of 5.3 million Euro, as the total of operated building areas amounted to 2,3 million sqm. Main players on the Romanian FM market are: UTI Facility Management, ISS, BSS and MT&T.

Investment funds hunt for local FM companies.

16-06-2011

Wall Street

A number of investment funds shown their interest in Property & Facility Management companies, according to Lucian Anghel, Managing Partner of BSS - Building Support Services.                                                                                                             

"There is a high interest to invest in FM companies. Investment funds hunt for companies in this industry, because the market is continuously growing', said Lucian Anghel, during the recent Facility & Property Management Conference, organized by Evensys, with BSS as main partner.

The continuous growth comes from retail and residential building spaces which are yearly delivered and need to be properly managed. As an example, while at its beginnings in 2003, BSS was managing only 30.000 sqm. of retail space, its present portfolio include 2,4 milion sqm. of retail, office, logistic, residential and hotel spaces.  When asked about the pros and cons arguments to acquisitions on the Property & Facility Management market, the participants in the Conference mentioned the (relative) lack of training of the FM employees, as well as below the market prices, just to attract more clients [...].

BSS posted a 5,3 million Euro turnover figure last year. Among the Company operated buildings there are Petrom City, Victoria Center, Europe House, CEZ Romania HQ, Washington Residence and River Place Sema Park.

The Property & Facility Management market was estimated at about 200 million Euro last year, up to 10% compared to 2009.

How much do companies pay for office cleaning.

02-11-2010

Wall Street                    1  11  2010

A 500 sqm office cleaning expenses may reach 1000 Euro per month. [...]Depending on dirt amount, surface types, tariffs for various types of required cleaning operations - maintenance, general, after building works or after various events - may vary from 0.8 to 1.9 Euro/sqm/month except VAT, according to the representative of BSS - Building Support Services, one of the most prominent Property & Facility Management companies in the Romanian FM market. In this regard, a 40-50 employees company lodged in 500 sqm office area may pay up to 1000 Euro/month for complete heavy duty cleaning.

Cleaning operations timing for office spaces [...] Relating to the operations scheduling for an office building, most of these are performed between 6:00 - 8:30 a.m. or alternatively, as agreed with or required by clients, during office hours, says Silvia Tancof -Operations Manager with BSS. "For a 500 sqm office area with about 50 employees, daily maintenance cleaning operations may take up tho three hours", explained the BSS representative.BSS didn't outsource the cleaning services, having, among others, such clients as CEZ Romania, CBRE Richard Ellis - for which supplies , by request, office cleaning services - as well as the Europolis, Intermed, Victoria International, Nova Building, Washington Residence, Gabrielle, Astoria and Maria Rosseti buildings. For these (and the rest of its portfolio), BSS offers customized cleaning solutions [...]

Suggestions for selecting cleaning companies . [...] the BSS representatives say that the main client requirements (for cleaning services) are: certified high quality in all cleaning operations, accurate timing, usage of environment-friendly cleaning agents and reasonable prices [...]

BSS ongoing expansion at national level. Property & Facility Management services for CEZ Romania.

14-09-2010

Few days ago, following a national bid, CEZ Romania,  the major power distribution company selected BSS as Property & Facility Management services supplier for its administrative and technical buildings and also for open facilities (parkings, green areas etc.).

According to the contract provisions, BSS will supply management, maintenance and operational services in more than two hundred locations situated in seven counties. The total BSS managed area amounts to 257 000 square metres. For delivering quality services, BSS will put at CEZ Romania's disposal seven regional working facilities and will employ the personnel from the respective locations, as well as mobile technical teams.

This is a significant success, considering the stringent requirement of quality standards of the Czech company and the magnitude of the project. By adding CEZ Romania to its client porfolio, BSS keeps its front position in the top Romanian Facility Management suppliers chart and performs the extension in both the service packages and the geographic area.

BSS   Building Support Services SRL is positioned among the local top three Property & Facility Management players, performing professional services at most stringent international standards. Presently, the company operates more than 230 locations in Bucharest, in other major cities and in various places all over Romania, totaling 2.14 million square metres, including A office buildings and retail, logistic, industrial, residential and hotel spaces.

2009 How much money companies made from the Facility Management business?

02-09-2010

 Sorina Negrila                          Wall Street              1 09 2010

The top five companies in the FM business had a cumulated turnover exceeding 55 mln. Euro in 2009, one company having more than 50% of the market share, according to the Ministry of Finance data.

3^rd place BSS: TO - 5,5 mln. Euro

Building Suport Services (BSS), managed by Lucian Anghel, reported a turnover figure of 5,55 mln Euro, a 15,6% increase against 2008. The company profit increased by 93%, up to 900.000 Euro and the number of employees went up from 215 to 238.

BSS manages a total area of 1.9 mln. square meters of office, commercial and logistic spaces, the Company portfolio including such locations as Europe House, Millennium Business Centre, River Place - Sema Parc, AFI Palace Cotroceni and Victoria Center.

The local Facility Management market nears to 200 mln. Euro

12-02-2010

The Romanian Porperty & Facility Management market reached about 180 mil. Euro in 2009, and for 2010 there is a projected 5% increase, say management representatives of Building Support Services  - BSS, a specialised FM local company.

„In 2009, the Property  (building  management and operation) and Facility Management (technical maintenance services) local market increased by 10-15%, reaching about 180 mln. Euro”, says Adrian Balasu, Marketing and Sales Manager at BSS.
„During the last year, the  market increased  faster, mainly due to a higher owners' and developers' awareness on advantages coming from outsourcing FM services. Other driving factors were the opening of new office, commercial and logistic buildings (even if in a lesser degree compared to 2008) and, not the least, new players entering the market”, explains Balasu.

The potential for market increase will continue for the coming years and is tied to the number of finalised projects.  But, as from this angle the prospective is not too optimistic, especially for the Bucharest retail market, where only one large commercial compound will be opened (that is Sun Plaza), the Property and Facility Management market may grow by only 5%, compared to 2009.

“The general economic situation and, specifically, the investments' volatile trends in the Real Estate sector still indicate a high degree of uncertainity. If we approach an optimistic view on the next period local economy, we might consider a growth by 5% in 2010”, says the BSS representative. As for the Property & Facility Managemeent companies' income, Adrian Balasu estimates a 10% growth, at most, for the entire local market.

BSS manages more than 1,77 million sqm of  office, logistic, commercial [and residential – BSS]. Its potfolio includes such locations as Europolis Park Bucharest, A 1 Industrial Park, Banca Transilvania, Europe House, Millennium Business Centre, River Place – Sema Parc, AFI Palace Cotroceni, Victoria Center and Olympia Tower.  

From Sorina Negrila/Wall Street.ro

Excerpts of Mr. Lucian Anghel's interview in Business Magazin/7 July 2009/Title: Fire of change?

09-07-2009

[...]After all, the crisis is beneficial in one way: real estate developers will have more time from now on to structure their projects more carefully and they have already ”started to also seek input from a manager again as they used to in 2003-2004,” Lucian Anghel, managing partner and founder of Building Support Services (BSS), one of the leading office building and logistic space management companies, said in a conversation with BUSINESS Magazin.
 
In his opinion, the new office buildings erected in major cities are of a lower quality than those built at the beginning the real estate boom. ”It was the rush to build and sell as fast as possible, it was the dwindling labour supply. They were erected to be sold fast,” the BSS head said without referring to any project in particular [...].
Relating to the recent fire, many brought up the issue of the small distance between the building and the church, as well as the material the facade was made from, which allowed the fire to spread quickly, and the lack of sprinklers on the floors of the building. ”No one expected a fire to start from the outside,” BSS manager comments[...]
 
Lucian Anghel adds that the construction regulations in force do not stipulate the mandatory installation of sprinklers ”unless the thermal load exceeds a certain level”, with the thermal load established based on the materials used for every floor. Since the tenants of an office building are free to use whatever furniture they like for their space, the initial calculation loses some of its relevancy. ”There were hydrants on every floor, anyway,” Anghel says. ”I am convinced, however, that from now on much harsher regulations in this field will be issued.”