Aldo Dapon to resign as Chairman of the Management Board of E.L.L. Real Estate in April
Aldo Dapon will resign as Chairman of the Management Board of E.L.L. Real Estate as of 3 April 2014 due to the end of his management board member contract. Under Dapon’s leadership, the company’s equity and assets have significantly increased. Until a new executive is found, current Management Board Member and CFO Taavi Ojala will fulfil the relevant duties.
“The past nine years have offered many interesting challenges – we have experienced a real estate boom, enjoyed the fruits of economic growth and seen the worst economic crisis of the recent decades. E.L.L. Real Estate has thrived and weathered the storm and remains on a solid economic footing today. I am pleased to have been able to make my contribution to developing large-scale, successful and sustainable commercial real estate developments which have helped the company to become the leading real estate developer and management company in the Baltics,” said Dapon.
In the last nine years, E.L.L. Real Estate has developed Spice and Spice Home in Riga, Panorama (Vilnius) and Saules Miestas (Šiauliai) shopping centres in Lithuania, Sõpruse Ärimaja office building, Delta Plaza office building and Nordic Hotel Forum in Tallinn.
“The halting of the Panorama City shopping and entertainment centre in Tallinn in January marked the end of an era for both me and the company. Partly also due to the expiration of the management board member’s contract in the near future, this is the right time for me to move on and pass the torch to my successor so that new directions for development can be explored. The new executive will inherit a very professional and hard-working team. I would like to thank all of the employees of the E.L.L. Real Estate Group companies for their work and pleasant cooperation,” Dapon added.
“On behalf of the supervisory board, I want to thank Aldo for his years of contributing to the company’s development. His knowledge and experience have helped us launch and develop major shopping centres in the Baltics. During his era, the company’s equity has tripled and the assets have grown more than five times – to reach 300 million euros,” said Tõnu Toomik, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of E.L.L. Real Estate. The supervisory board will presently embark on a search for a new executive, and until one is found, current Management Board Member and CFO Taavi Ojala will fulfil the relevant duties.
Lease income for E.L.L. Real Estate Group companies totalled approximately 26.5 million euros in 2013. Results for both the retail and office real estate were according to the projections. Vilnius Panorama, Riga Spice and Spice Home, Šiauliai Saules Miestas and Tallinn Viru Keskus shopping centre were visited in 2013 by 37 million people and total turnover was close to 365 million euros. The office real estate sector has a positive outlook for 2014, as vacancy is near zero in all office building projects owned by E.L.L. Real Estate.
E.L.L. Real Estate (www.ell-realestate.com) is the leading real estate company in the Baltics, with core activities consisting of developing and managing shopping centres, hotels and office buildings. E.L.L. Kinnisvara owns holdings in five leading shopping centres: Spice and Spice Home shopping centres in Riga, Panorama centre in Vilnius, Viru Keskus in Tallinn and Saules Miestas centre in Šiauliai. E.L.L. Kinnisvara also owns Delta Plaza and Sõpruse Ärimaja office buildings in Tallinn and L3 office building in Vilnius. In addition, the company is the owner of the Nordic Hotel Forum building (operated by OÜ Nordic Hotels) and co-owns, together with Infortar, Tallink City Hotel and Tallink Express Hotel, operated by Tallink Hotels.