31 marzo 2008

«For the third year in a row, MIPIM, the world’s property market, has set an all-time attendance record. Total attendance reached 29,318 delegates (12% up on 2007) from 89 countries. The 9,744 companies represented at MIPIM was also a 12% increase on last year.
“The challenges caused by the sub-prime crisis in the United States and the slowdown in global economic growth have had very little impact on MIPIM. The event continues to be the major international gathering for the property business, where professionals learn about large-scale projects, and new geographical and commercial investment opportunities,” says Nadine Castagna, Director of MIPIM.

Among the major markets, there was a stronger showing from a number of key regions :

- With over 2,000 companies in Cannes, the United Kingdom remains the best represented country at MIPIM and increased its participation by 8%.

- German participation surged by 17% this year with 904 companies and Belgium by 21%, while the number of Russian companies at MIPIM increased 30% to 713 companies.

- Northern Europe made a strong showing with a 17% rise from Denmark and 14% from Sweden.

- Property companies from the United States were in resilient mood, with US

attendance up 19%.

There was strong showing at MIPIM by international investors, with over 6,800 attendees, up over 17%* on last year. For the first time, Cannes was the venue for the MIPIM Summit, where key investors and asset management specialists met behind closed doors to discuss their vision of the future of international real estate. This unique forum was broadcast exclusively on Bloomberg TV. The short, high-impact interactive Speed Matching sessions dedicated to investors, also attracted considerable interest for the second year in a row.

Global leaders in the hotel business expanded their attendance by 36,6%, with 209 hotel groups professionals coming to MIPIM this year, compared to 154 in 2007. To meet the needs of professionals, MIPIM also successfully launched a dedicated encounter forum entitled ‘Hotel Chat Groups,’ organised jointly with hotel consultancy MKG. Key personalities from the industry also shared skills and viewpoints during a day of conferences on March 13, dedicated to these issues.

More than 120 mayors and around 50 government representatives (ministers, ambassadors or prefects...) were present for this 19th edition. The famous Mayor’s Lunch brought together more than 40 City Mayors from 16 countries behind closed doors to foster discussion, share ideas and exchange experiences on the urban challenges they face. The conference on ‘Comparison between Central and Western (European) cities and their perspectives,’ in presence of senior representatives from the city authorities of Warsaw, Bratislava, Budapest and Prague attracted the largest audience of all conferences this year.

MIPIM 2008 also welcomed many world-famous architects. The keynote address on ‘The city of the future,’ led by the Dutch architect and town planner, Winy Maas, attracted a full house. Lord Norman Foster, on the stand of the Russian Land developer, proved a crowd-puller with his avant-garde projects in the Russian Federation.

Daniel Libeskind, Jean Nouvel, Jacques Ferrier and Jean-Michel Wilmotte also honoured MIPIM with their presence by attending the announcement of the five prizewinners for the ‘Signal Tower’, for which they were candidates. The competition winner will be commissioned to build a major new construction in the fashionable Paris suburb of La Défense. EPAD, (Public City Planning Authority for Business District La Défense), which masterminded this exclusive event, showcased models of the selected projects on its stand.

Other high points of this 19th MIPIM included the preview presentation by Urban Land Institute (ULI) and PricewaterhouseCoopers of their report on Emerging Trends in Real Estate® for Europe in 2008. The Global Housing Foundation, together with its partners UN-Habitat, Merrill Lynch and FIABCI, highlighted their exclusive partnership for raising funds to create affordable accommodation for low-income slum dwellers in Central and Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. Elvira Nabiullina, the Russian Minister of Economic Development and Trade, discussed the benefits and risks of investing in Russian regions with leading industry experts and Russia’s largest developers.

The MIPIM Awards 2008 gave prizes to five first-in-class property projects. For the first time this year, the there was a new category for green buildings.

Business Centres: Council of Europe – New General Office Building
Strasbourg, France

Refurbished Office Buildings: Unilever House
London, United Kingdom

Residential Developments: Chimney Pot Park
Salford, United Kingdom

Hotels and Tourism Resorts: Projekt Hotel Wasserturm – Hamburg Sternschanze
Hamburg, Germany

Green Buildings: Crane Track
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Special Prize of the Jury: Crane Track
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

A selection of 20 ‘Best of’ visuals from MIPIM 2008 is available at www.online-picture.com, using the login: “mipimevent” and password: “mipim2008”.

The conference programme sessions can be viewed partially or fully at www.mipim.com

* estimated statement, figure to be confirmed» (CS della Società)