Our strategy is to develop cities in sustainable ways. Pontos wants to find solutions and solvers for curbing climate change and maintaining the Earth’s bearing capacity, including new, innovative players digitalizing the real estate and construction industry. We help companies grow by offering capital, sector expertise and support for business development.

The global real estate base is the world’s largest asset class. At the same time, real estate and construction make up 40 percent of the world’s total CO₂ emissions. In 2022, Pontos launched carbon neutrality goals for its real estate portfolio, targeting a carbon-neutral real estate portfolio by 2030. With systematic leadership, we will promote the use of new solutions and operating ways that support carbon neutrality in our properties – and all our companies.

Long-term investments in the investment portfolio yielded results

Pontos’ investment portfolio developed favorably in 2022 despite the challenging investment environment, which was impacted by increasing inflation, the rapidly rising interest level and negative return from most asset classes.

The key event of the year for Pontos’ investment portfolio was selling data center and cloud service company Ficolo (now Verne Global). We invested in the company together with Taaleri in 2017. As the company grew by 30 percent annually, we sold all our shares to infrastructure fund Digital 9 Infrastructure plc, which has more extensive resources to support the company in its next growth stages. Success was made possible by the excellent collaboration between Ficolo’s management, board and owners.

Viru Keskus entered the final stage of its two-year renovation program, which will be completed in summer 2023. During summer 2022, the company opened a renewed restaurant hub, food world and an area for well-being and leisure services. With the renovation program still ongoing, Viru Keskus’ sales reached the pre-pandemic level.

Construction of the sustainable regional development project Ombria Resort continued, and the company was able to sell 80 percent of residences from the first development stage. After 23 years of development, we are opening the golf course in spring 2023 and the hotel during the second half of the year. Portugal’s popularity as a travel destination continues to grow: in 2022, tourism revenue in Portugal was 19 percent higher in euros, compared to 2019.

At Helsinki-Vantaa airport, AVIA Real Estate continued the construction of Finland’s largest hotel opening in 2024. The recovery of air traffic and increased number of passengers was reflected in increased real estate demand in the airport area. The use rate of the area’s hotels was over 90% during several months.

In our real estate investments, R8 Technologies introduced a demand response service, which saved customers a total of 300,000 euros during approximately 6 months. The company also saved 15,000 tons of CO₂ emissions. The energy crisis accelerated the company’s business growth further.

Viru Keskus, which uses R8 software, is able to provide its tenants nearly 50 percent lower maintenance costs compared to similar shopping centers in the Baltics. The company’s turnover grew by 106% during the year.

Leading service provider in the automotive industry, Valmet Automotive, continued to grow its battery business. Electromobility increased further during the year, and the company’s long-term strategic decisions have created a strong base for growth. The company made a good result (profit of MEUR 31) in a very challenging market environment for the automotive industry. The company looked into the possibility of listing its shares on the Nasdaq Helsinki, but decided to postpone the project due to the challenging market environment.

We also continued with our private equity fund program, which involves investing in major private equity funds operating outside our home market. The program increases the diversification of our portfolio to different geographical areas and industries. Decisions regarding funds are made relatively conservatively and with consideration for the specific features of this asset class – in other words, seeking moderate risk with a reasonable profit target.

2023 inflation and increasing interests

The start of 2023 is marked by the increasing inflation and ongoing rise in the interest level. The investment environment appears to be challenging in the future as well with the market seeking a new balance after a long zero-interest period.

High interests cause numerous changes, and as one economist has said: “something will be broken.” As I write this, we have already witnessed the first breaks in the banking sector, for example.

The world’s political climate offers will surely bring surprises this year. The previous years have taught us to react to exceptional situations, and this ability may come in handy this year as well.

I would like to thank everyone we worked with for this year.

Timo Kokkila
CEO