French Real Estate Group Icade Takes Control Of Meeting Rooms Operator Comet for €40 Mio

French listed real estate company Icade has acquired a majority stake in Comet, a fast-growing operator specializing in premium corporate event venues and meeting spaces, marking a strategic move beyond conventional office ownership into higher value-added workplace services.

Icade buys Comet for 40 Mio € (which could go as high as 55 Mio €, depending on the upcoming performances of the company). Comet’s founders and management team will remain shareholders and continue to lead the company.

Founded in 2016 by Victor Carreau and Charles de Gastines, Comet has developed a network of premium venues dedicated exclusively to business meetings, seminars, conferences and corporate events. The company now operates 18 venues across Paris, La Défense, Lille and Lyon, representing approximately 50,000 square meters of event space. According to Icade, Comet serves more than 1,500 corporate clients every year. Unlike traditional conference centers, Comet focuses on fully serviced, hospitality-driven environments designed specifically for collaborative work, management meetings, training sessions and corporate gatherings.

Icade is one of France’s largest listed real estate companies, focusing primarily on office and healthcare real estate. The group manages a property portfolio valued at more than €5.6 billion.

For Icade, the acquisition represents more than an investment in an event operator.

The listed property company has been repositioning its office portfolio under its ReShapE strategic plan, seeking to create more diversified, service-oriented revenue streams as companies increasingly rethink how they use office space. The acquisition forms part of Icade’s broader strategy to diversify its office business by expanding into operational real estate activities that generate service revenues in addition to rental income. Icade’s ReShapE strategy aims at rotating assets and expanding higher value-added activities. Recent transactions have included major office disposals, healthcare asset sales.

“Today, three out of four employees say they want the option of coming into the office every day to reconnect with their colleagues, share a common corporate culture and strengthen team dynamics—dimensions that remote work alone cannot replace. As a result, the office can no longer be viewed simply as a place to work. It must become a destination that offers services, fosters interaction and delivers meaningful experiences. In this rapidly evolving market, the transaction reflects a strong conviction at Icade: our tenants are no longer simply occupants of square metres—they are customers. This shift in perspective fundamentally changes the way commercial real estate is designed, managed and operated. With the acquisition of Comet, Icade is taking another step in that transformation. The Group is reaffirming its ambition to move beyond a purely asset-based approach and become a trusted partner to its customers by placing service quality, building accessibility, the environmental and social performance of its portfolio, and the user experience at the heart of its offering“, says Icade’s press release.

By acquiring Comet, Icade gains immediate exposure to a fast-growing operating platform rather than relying exclusively on rental income from office buildings. The acquisition also strengthens Icade’s ability to offer occupiers a broader range of workplace services, complementing its traditional property activities with hospitality-led experiences. Executives see the move as consistent with the long-term evolution of office real estate toward mixed-use, service-rich ecosystems.

Comet’s business has reached a significant level of maturity. According to Icade, Comet generated approximately €64 million in revenue in 2025, while maintaining profitability with an EBITDA margin exceeding 20%, making it one of the few scaled and profitable operators in the French corporate events sector.

“The acquisition of Comet is fully aligned with Icade’s transformation strategy, says Nicolas Joly, CEO of Icade, in the press release. Drawing on ten years of experience serving businesses, Comet has developed unique expertise in designing spaces that make people want to return to the office by fostering interaction and conviviality. By integrating this expertise in user experience and hospitality, Icade strengthens its value proposition and unlocks new growth opportunities across its real estate portfolio. This transaction marks another step toward our ambition of offering clients much more than office buildings: attractive, high-performing workplaces and living environments that create lasting value.”

“By joining Icade, Comet gains a long-term partner to accelerate its growth. We share a common vision of the workplace of tomorrow: more flexible, more hospitality-driven and more focused on user experience. This transaction opens up new opportunities to deploy our expertise on a much larger scale“, comments Victor Carreau, Nicholas Findling and Maxime Albertus, Co-founders of Comet.

In a LinkedIn post announcing the transaction, Victor Carreau wrote that Comet’s mission remains unchanged: “reinventing the future of work through exceptional places for collective experiences.” He also emphasized that the founders, management team and employees remain fully committed to developing the business alongside Icade.

The acquisition appears complementary for both organizations. Comet contributes an operational business with recurring service revenues, recognized brand equity and hospitality expertise. Icade contributes financial strength, property expertise and access to one of France’s largest office real estate platforms.

Rather than integrating Comet into a traditional landlord model, Icade intends to preserve its operational independence while supporting expansion.

This approach mirrors a broader trend across European commercial real estate, where institutional property owners are increasingly investing in operating businesses that provide flexible workspace, hospitality and experience-based services instead of relying exclusively on long-term leases.

Pic source: Comet