Dear Shareholders,
Swiss Prime Site’s vision is to design functional, flexible and attractive spaces. With our know-how and active project planning – which are based on the utmost customer orientation – we aim to contribute to developing concepts and products that constitute more than just office or retail space. Our aspiration is to plan spaces that complement one another, that interact with one another and, in turn, to create living spaces where people like to linger, work efficiently and find a constructive basis. We managed to successfully execute our projects in 2017 too.
Swiss Prime Site closed out the financial year 2017 with favourable results. Operating income of CHF 1 154.8 million as well as profit excluding revaluations and deferred taxes of CHF 307.4 million reached respective new record highs. We succeeded in completing some projects and initiating many new ones that precisely follow suit with our guiding principles. In the wake of the debut of the desired «Motel One» in the convention city of Basel already in 2016, «Motel One» subsequently also executed its market launch in Zurich in 2017. Swiss Prime Site thus developed the largest hotel in German-speaking Switzerland comprising 394 rooms from an office building that was no longer contemporary. A development site for research, business, entertainment, wellness and local recreation will emerge in the coming years from the former Stücki shopping centre in Basel. Swiss Prime Site has also commenced an impressive conversion project with the «Schönburg» site in Berne. A new living space will be constructed for the city of Berne in a few years from the former Swiss Post headquarters. We are executing another one of our ground-breaking projects in Zurich City at present. The objective is aimed at offering maximum flexibility to future generations of enterprises and their employees. With «YOND», a product will emerge that has never before existed on the Swiss market.
Our driving force comprises having a vision and deriving a strategy therefrom, striving to provide society with the requisite spaces that are skilfully networked as well as consequently creating living spaces. We will address the markets with this same approach in the coming year and beyond as well.
I would like to thank our valued customers and partners for their trust in the past financial year. I wish to also express my thanks to the employees of the entire Swiss Prime Site Group, the Executive Board and my colleagues on the Board of Directors.
Hans Peter Wehrli
Chairman of the Board of Directors