Kristjan Tamla joins the Management Board of EfTEN Capital

As of 1 May 2023, Kristjan Tamla, current head of the company's retail division, will become a new Member of the Management Board and Managing Director of EfTEN Capital, the largest real estate fund manager in the Baltics. Viljar Arakas will continue as Chairman of the Board and Fund Manager of EfTEN Capital, which was founded fifteen years ago today.

"The expansion of the Board is related to company’s growing business volumes and the increasing regulatory burden in financial sector. Kristjan's main task as a Managing Director of EfTEN Capital is to coordinate the day-to-day operations of the company," said Viljar Arakas, Chairman of the Board of EfTEN Capital.

Tamla has almost 20 years of international fund management experience in Estonia and Sweden. Prior to joining EfTEN Capital at the beginning of 2021, Tamla spent seven years as a Chairman of the Management Board of Swedbank Investeerimisfondid AS, the largest fund manager in the Baltics.

"I am encouraged by EfTEN's ambition to continue to grow and deliver value to investors. On the one hand, we are a mature company within the Baltic context, but at the same time the team is constantly looking for new growth opportunities in commercial real estate. One example of which is the increasing focus on rental apartment buildings," said Kristjan Tamla, future Managing Director of EfTEN.

Continuing as a Chairman of the Management Board of EfTEN Capital and a Fund Manager of EfTEN Capital, Arakas will be responsible for the investment activities of EfTEN's funds, including investments through its Latvian and Lithuanian subsidiaries. He will also manage the strategic direction of the company. Maie Talts, the company's lawyer, will continue as the third member of the EfTEN Capital Board.

EfTEN Capital AS, a real estate investment company, was launched on 14 April, 2008, by eleven founders. The company has now grown into the largest and most successful real estate fund manager in the Baltics, with 64 commercial buildings with a market value of over 1.1 billion euros, over 1,300 tenants, and 12,000 investors in its six managed real estate funds.

"In the fifteen years of EfTEN Capital's activity, we have been guided by two principles: always putting the interests of investors first and, in a company created at the height of the crisis in 2008, taking only the risks which we understand," said Arakas.

Emerging opportunities in the commercial real estate sector

"EfTEN has distributed about 100 million euros of income from funds to investors throughout its history. We have certainly been supported by global tailwind in the real estate market caused by central banks' money printing. Today, and for the foreseeable future, we are operating in a very different property market environment. Money printing has been replaced by the fastest interest rate rise in decades, and the real estate sector is being hit virtually worldwide. The first wave of interest rate hikes had a negative impact on commercial real estate companies with high debt levels and bond market borrowing. For about a year, EfTEN has been preparing for the changing environment, and in the near term, our focus will be on the potential acquisition of real estate projects that are facing financial challenges. EfTEN's funds are well-capitalized, and they have the capacity to expand the portfolio," Arakas assessed the outlook for the real estate market.

EfTEN Capital currently manages six real estate funds in the Baltics with 64 commercial properties whose total value amounts to 1.1 billion euros.