END USER INSIGHT
END USER INSIGHT
what has been happening in regard to the resurgence of emphasis on people working from home and industries and businesses having to become more digitalised , more investors have seen this as a good opportunity to invest within the sector and take advantage of those longer-term leases .
How do you plan to take advantage of the industry ’ s increasing focus on data centres as an asset class ?
BNP Paribas will always focus on our individual client ' s needs and with that we ' ll look to give impartial advice on their real estate strategies . Whether that be landlords looking at entering the data centre market for the first time – we ' ve been having numerous conversations with landlords about that . And then operators who are just wanting to expand their footprint already in the market or potentially land banking opportunities for their future business growth . key to our expansion . I ' m speaking to the banking guys at the moment that have contacts not only within large colocators , but also within the hyperscalers . We can use those relationships to give our clients better advice on both sides .
How does the UK market differ compared to other regions in terms of data centre investment and the ways in which organisations utilise these facilities ?
Having been in the industry for all of what is probably about 24 to 30 months , I ' m probably not best placed to answer this , but I do know that our real estate specialists in Germany do incredibly well and are generally one of our market leaders . I don ' t know whether they have a huge amount of availability but I think that particularly around the Frankfurt market it ' s quite tight on availability .
So how it differs I ' m not sure , but I do know they have similar problems to us in the UK in terms of the amount of available stock and the ability to get consent for data centres there .
How do you plan to strategically lead your team and what is your philosophy for success ?
The strategy is simple really – there aren ' t many guys that specialise in data centres within the real estate market and so the strategy for us is just to provide our clients with good-quality non-bias well-researched advice on any acquisition or transaction they may be undertaking . I think that especially when you ' re working with occupiers , they will focus on the technical , specialisation of their business .
We can give them well-researched advice on the real estate piece . And as for landlords , they need someone who is used to speaking a data centre language and they can then translate what the most important specifics are for them to approach the data centre market .
What are some of the company ’ s core values and how will you carry these forward in your new role ?
Innovation : people being creative and proactive in finding solutions to provide for their clients – that ’ s a key core value within BNP Paribas . Proximity : understanding the specific characteristics of each market in order to tailor our approach and service to any of our clients . Expertise : making the right choices to create value in every aspect of real estate . Responsibility : carrying out our activities in line with our values and sharing them with our clients . These values are all key values to our clients and how we operate in day-to-day life . ◊
There ' s also the opportunity to work alongside our banking colleagues , which is going to be a real opportunity which is
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