Jérôme Justin has been a corporate real estate expert for over ten years. After a year spent in the Swiss real estate market, representing and defending the interests of international companies, he returned to France. His goal: to put this latest experience to good use. He set up IVAL, a company specializing in commercial lease optimization and corporate real estate strategy. For Cashlab, he explains how a good real estate strategy can be a lever for optimizing working capital.
What is IVAL and how did you come up with the idea of creating this company?
"In the Swiss market real estate intermediaries are real advisers. They work either for companies or for investor-landlords. Not like in France, where the situation clearly benefits the lessors whose sole aim is to increase profits at the expense of the poor preneurs. I found that this positioning had strong added value for the French market. And my temperament led me to move into business consultancy.
Indeed, behind every property project there is a business project. Defending and supporting that project by putting the right strategy in place is what I like about this job".
What does your work mean in practical terms?
"A good half of our sales are generated directly from the sale of our products. success fees faisant suite à des missions de lease negotiations. Many companies are still paying rents and charges that are too high, particularly in regional markets. It is difficult for non-professionals to know market values and practices in real time.
Our other activities mainly involve searching for new sites and advising on commercial leases. We have also recently opened a space-planning department and development consultancy.
Indeed, current moves are aimed at rationalising locations, certainly in terms of surface area and costs, but without neglecting the quality of the facilities offered to employees and partners".
In what way do your real estate initiatives constitute an effective lever for optimising cash management?
"Our missions generally consist of carrying out an audit of the commercial leases and a benchmark of the legal environmentWe compare the company's technical and financial performance with market conditions. This allows us to highlight clear optimisation levers that very often enable companies to retroactively recover sums wrongly paid, such as excess rent, charges or taxes. In 2014, IVAL helped to reduce the financial charges associated with the leases it renegotiated by more than 15%.
These économies are contractually formalised and therefore long-term. This means that the cash generated is both short-term and medium-term.
What can be done about real estate is still not well known, but it is clearly a real lever, from WCR management."
Who are your customers?
"We work mainly for two types of customer:
- Companies with a single location in France with a ponctual need find a new building or renegotiate their rental conditions.
- Des MidCaps or companies of SBF 120 do not have in-house property management functions. These companies generally have a large number of sites and find themselves at a loss when it comes to certain management control elements specific to property or certain legislative changes, such as the recent Pinel law, which alters the scope of items that can be re-invoiced to tenants.
For these SMEs and large companies, property is often the second largest item of expenditure after payroll. "
When is the best time in a company's life cycle to call on IVAL?
'On the one hand, concerning the run (day-to-day management on a like-for-like basis) there are times when it is more opportune than others, but overall an audit can reveal anomalies in favour of the tenant at any time during the life of the commercial lease.
On the other hand, concerning the change (operation generating a change), the mergers and acquisitionsThese changes, whether due to redundancy plans or strong organic growth, generate changes in the workforce that have an impact on real estate.
Sometimes a simple managerial change or a search for savings will also lead to a rethink of the facilities or even a transfer".
What are your strategic ideas for the future of the company?
"Today, IVAL wants to support companies in their property development strategy in an even more comprehensive way.
En effet, plusieurs phénomènes actuels ont déjà des impacts sur la gestion de l’immobilier :
- Mandatory online declaration of rents following the revision of property rental values
- PINEL law
- Trends in workplace design and new working environments
- IT tools are doing away with the very notion of a workstation
In this way, we are doing everything we can to provide operational solutions and enrich our customers' strategic thinking on these issues".
We'll be announcing significant progress shortly!
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