Spanish rental giant Testa looks for new CEO after Wolfgang Beck resigns

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

Wolfgang Beck has announced his resignation as CEO and advisor of Testa, the socimi rental service giant in Spain.

This was revealed by the company controlled by the US fund Blackstone to the Alternative Stock Market (MAB), in which it thanks Beck for its services and wishes him success in his future projects.

The German took the reins of the socimi in early 2018 with the aim of replicating in our country the rental models of Germany and Austria, two of the most mature markets in the home leasing business.

As it appears on the Testa website, Wolfgang Beck has more than 10 years of experience in real estate. Before becoming CEO of Testa, between 2010 and 2015, he held different positions in Vonovia, one of the largest real estate giants in Europe and specializing in rental housing. Among the positions he held in the company are the Chairman of the Executive Board of DA Business Management GmbH and head of asset management. He was also a member of the Executive Committee and Chief Representative of the group. Prior to being in Vonovia, Beck served as Director and member of the management team at Booz & Company and was a manager at the consulting firm A.T. Kearney.

One of Beck's last public appearances as CEO of Testa was in inmonext 2019, the reference real estate reflection conference organized by idealista in Madrid last October. During his presentation, he was against applying measures aimed at limiting the rental price, after there have been failures in many European cities such as Berlin or Paris. Instead, he was in favor of building more rental housing to counteract the tensions of supply and demand.

“If there are many increases in income and price, the only solution is to build more and attract capital from outside and not scare it. And this has to serve us to apply it to Spain and find solutions that help and do not worsen the situation,” he stressed during his speech.

Sources from Testa say that the company is not going to appoint a new CEO, but the plan is to reorganize internally. This change is taking place among rumors that Blackstone will organize its real estate investment companies in Spain. Recently, the American giant has sold the last office buildings that the Patrimonial Crown vehicle had in its portfolio, which has run out of assets, so that it will either liquidate it or integrate it into another company.

Testa is one of the biggest Blackstone socimis in Spain. It currently owns 11,000 rental homes, distributed in about twenty of the main Spanish cities. Its market capitalization is around 846.5 million euros, which makes it one of the most valuable MAB socimis.

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

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