Business Review talked to Rüdiger Dany, the CEO of NEPI Rockcastle, about the group’s development pipeline in Romania as part of a wider EUR 788 investment plan and the trends shaping the retail sector in 2025 and beyond.
By Aurel Dragan
What is your growth target this year?
For 2025, we gave guidance of 1.5% growth per share, which means an operational growth of around 5%. We are looking forward to achieving those figures. For now, based on the growth recorded in Q1, we are on track.
What are your investment targets for this year?
First of all, on our investment side, the development pipeline is mainly concentrated in Romania and Bulgaria. The pipeline currently comprises around EUR 788 million, of which we have already spent EUR 250 million. We are investing in the extension of the retail offer at which will also include office and a hotel. The third investment in the pipeline is a retail park in Galati. At the same time, NEPI Rockcastle has started an energy business: we are producing and distributing energy to our shopping centres, and we are currently in the process of investing another EUR 100 million in Romania.
Does the energy production cover your usage?
No, we started in 2022 and have spent EUR 34 million on placing photovoltaic panels on top of our roofs and parking spaces. We currently produce about 6% of the total energy consumption of our entire portfolio across all 8 countries in which we operate. That is growing now as we are investing in photovoltaic panels on fields, and when those will become functional in 2027, we will be able to cover around 48% of our consumption. The good news is that we will significantly bring down the carbon emissions of our portfolio.
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Does ESG-ready development increase the cost of construction?
Yes, this does come with additional costs. All our buildings are BREEAM-certified, which involves extra investment. But ESG compliance is already a central topic in discussions with investors and during property evaluations, especially when seeking future financing from banks. We need to take ESG targets into account throughout the entire lifecycle of each asset.
Will mixed-use projects dominate the market in the future?
It depends on the location. Here in Bucharest, especially in Sector 1, there are many business travellers looking for hotels. The mix of office, hotel, and retail works very well, as it provides three different income streams. Then there are cities like Galati, where we’re building a retail park and will likely add a residential component—just as we will do in Craiova, where the development is right next to the shopping centre. At Vulcan in Bucharest, we’ve built a residential building with 250 apartments, and we also have a residential development in plan in Brasov.
What are the main trends in the retail market today?
What I’m seeing is that retailers are placing greater emphasis on quality. In the future, they may have fewer stores, but those stores will need to be in prime locations. That’s why, at NEPI Rockcastle, we place strong focus on location and are constantly optimising our portfolio.
