With its sponsors’ support and a willingness to challenge conventional thinking, IREIT Global has built a portfolio worth over S$1 billion. Its CEO Louis d’Estienne d’Orves shares more. This article was first published on 20 March 2024. In 2021, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, real estate investment trust IREIT Global (“IREIT”) made a surprising move, buying sporting goods giant Decathlon’s retail properties in France to lease them back. “Everyone was saying we were crazy, that retail is over due to e-commerce and Covid-19,” recalls Louis d’Estienne d’Orves, chief executive officer of IREIT. “For us, it was a mix of conviction and data. We looked at studies, but we also believed that even if people buy light bulbs and things like that online, they will go to shops for things like tennis rackets and running shoes, things you want to feel and test. We secured the Decathlon properties at a very attractive price, and we see...