The largest Romanian real estate investor made a huge profit

Iulius Group, owned by Iulian Dascălu (55), the largest Romanian real estate investor, reported total business of over 1.1 billion lei (222 million euros) in 2024, after an increase of almost 101% compared to the previous year, due to the real estate portfolio it manages. Palas Campus in Iași, the newest project in the portfolio, had a significant contribution to the increase in the group's profits, according to financial data transmitted to Profit.ro. Before being presented here, the information was announced long before on Profit Insider. The Iași entrepreneur collected in 2024, from the five malls he developed and owned in partnership with the South Africans from Atterbury Europe (excluding Palas Iași), revenues of 142 million euros, 1.4% more than the result of 2023. The results helped him maintain second place in the top of the largest shopping center owners in Romania, after NEPI Rockcastle. The retail spaces rented within Iulius Town in Timișoara also brought the highest revenues for the Iulius group last year, namely 42.4 million euros, followed by the retail spaces within the Palas complex in Iași, which generated business increasing by 6.4% to about 38 million euros. The group's third most important retail asset is Iulius Mall Cluj, which reported business growth of 4.5% to 35.3 million euros, including the share of its partner Univers T. Follow us also on Google News The group's three retail projects are also in the Top 10 malls with the highest turnover in 2024. The two small shopping centers, called Family Market Miroslava and Bucium, inaugurated by Iulian Dascălu in the second half of 2022, generated rental income of about 3.7 million euros. In 2023, half of the two shopping centers were sold by Iași to Texan entrepreneur Daniel Cocanougher in a transaction estimated at 14-15 million euros. READ ALSO EXCLUSIVE Ovidiu Andreiș, one of Dinamo's shareholders, has partnered with two former Strabag managers in a new residential project, on a land that Medicover wanted to build a hospital on. Dascălu has also developed 15 office buildings with a cumulative area of over 240,000 square meters, which would ensure him fourth place in the top of the largest owners of such buildings in Romania, but the Iasi entrepreneur shares 6 of the buildings with his South African partner Atterbury Europe, i.e. an area of 102,000 square meters (two buildings in Cluj-Napoca and four in Iulius Town Timișoara). From the offices in Palas Iași, Palas Campus, Iulius Town Timișoara, UBC One and Riviera Office in Cluj-Napoca, the group obtained revenues of 74.5 million euros, 24.21% more than the results of the previous year, and this is due to the first full year of operation of the Palas Campus office building, which generated a turnover of 16.8 million euros, according to data sent to Profit.ro by representatives of the Iulius group. The Palas Campus building, located near Palas Iași, has a leasable area of 54,000 square meters of offices and 6,000 square meters of retail space and required an investment of over 120 million euros. Amazon has brought together its research and development center here, for which over 2,000 employees work. In total, the building hosts 13 companies with over 5,000 employees. READ ALSO EXCLUSIVELY The giant M Core, owned by a British tycoon, adds another city in Romania to the map, after a transaction with two former Lidl executives Iulius' cumulative profit was over 210 million lei in 2024, the equivalent of 42.3 million euros - calculated at the average exchange rate of last year, an increase of over 57% compared to the cumulative profit of the previous year. All properties of the Iulius group were profitable. The value of the real estate portfolio held by the Iulius group and Atterbury Europe was recently calculated at 1.8 billion euros by the real estate consultancy company Cushman & Wakefield Echinox and BREC. This is the most valuable portfolio held by a Romanian entrepreneur, being surpassed, in value, only by the properties of NEPI Rockcastle and CTP Invest, both players with foreign capital.

Source: https://www.profit.ro