A HEALTHY RECOVERY AND STEAMING AHEAD FOR A SUSTAINABLE GROWTH

The COVID crisis seems to be behind us, how do you look at the past period?

2020 and 2021 have been remarkably challenging and contrasted. In 2020 and 2021 our group has been hit by a decrease in turnover of respectively 30 and 20%. At the same time, thanks to our teams and to the high progress made in digitization, we were able during the COVID crisis to keep all of our car parks (+/- 1 000) open and running. Concurrently, we invested in 2020 and 2021 more than 300 million euros in new car parks. As for 2022, we expect to recover our 2019 pre-COVID level which was a historical high for the Interparking Group.

What is the outlook for the future?

Bright and positive for offstreet car parks! Not only have we massively invested in new operations in 2020 and 2021 but we are also comforted with the following positive perspectives:

  • As cities are massively reducing on-street car parking in their centers, off-street car parks are benefiting of this policy as the previously “on-street parked cars” will park “off-street” in our facilities.
  • As a consequence of the massive ongoing electrification of vehicles, our car parks will become large electrical charging stations.
  • Since the end of the COVID crisis, our clients have been travelling and going out extensively and it is our pleasure and duty to host them in our car park operations.
  • Furthermore in this particular context, the Group is continuing to massively invest in digitization: new SAP system, new app’s, automatic data transmission, new booking systems, further roll out of our Pcards, increase of the number of car parks, etc.

Has the health crisis impacted your commitment in terms of sustainability?

Not at all! The Interparking Group is since 7 years CO2 neutral. We have closed many “green” financing agreements which foresee lower interest rates if specific ESG parameters are reached. We have also been the first car park operator to roll out the “lungs in the city, enabling us to reduce significantly the amount of fine particles in our operations and, in 2021, we have been GRESB certified with a quotation above our peer average. The GRESB is an international certification which evaluates and compare the ESG performances of actors active in the real estate and infrastructure sector.

What standards do you base your sustainability policy upon?

We have established a list of major environmental issues to which Interparking is committed, in line with the United Nations sustainable development goals. You will discover the list of these objectives and the various programs we have launched in this report. It is with these objectives in mind that Interparking has joined the UN Global Compact program, so as to support the transition towards safe, resilient and sustainable cities and buildings.

What are Interparking latest achievements in this area?

  • Interparking is CO2 neutral as a group since 2015.
  • Furthermore, most of loans are now green loans with environmental objectives to be met.
  • Interparking is the first car park operator to have rolled out “lungs in the city” in its operations, so as to reduce the amount of fine particles in the car parks. 76 of these systems have now been rolled out.
  • Interparking is investing massively in EV charging stations.
  • 231 car parks of Interparking have been ESPA certified, the highest European quality certification.

How can Interparking promote green mobility?

Interparking is the only car park operator who has rolled out an “Eco-parking” tariffication. This tariffication system, based in a real time recognition of the car numberplate, enables us to provide substantial tariffication reduction to low emission vehicles. Last mile delivery operations are being rolled out with our partner Ziegler by which Interparking car parks are used to deliver parcels in the center of the cities with electric cargo bikes. Car parks are being remodeled so as to host bicycle parking stations (more than 800 for example in the renovated parking Loi, in Brussels). Massive rollout of EV charging stations is planned with more than 100M € being dedicated to this objective for the next 2 years.

Is there a news you would like to deliver in particular?

Certainly, one of optimism and of positivism. In the changing world which is ours, I wish to thank our teams, our customers, our partners and our shareholders for their trust and support during the last 2 challenging years. In a changing world, Interparking is positioning itself as a major ESG car park operator. This will require the best of our dedicated teams and management. Please be assured of our will to make this succeed!