Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield appoints new chairman and thanks the architect of its recovery

Vincent Rouget, currently Managing Director of European Operations, will take the reins of the company, listed on the CAC 40 stock market index, from January 1, 2026.

The 45-year-old future boss joined URW in 2023 as Managing Director of Strategy and Investment, and has "actively contributed to the development of the company's 2025-2028 roadmap."

Previously, he spent more than 15 years at the pan-European real estate private equity firm Aermont Capital, where he served under the leadership of Léon Bressler, former CEO of Unibail.

This "succession plan" was already in the pipeline, the property company assured in a press release, specifying that the supervisory board decided on Thursday "to accelerate its implementation."

"Today's announcement reflects our proactive approach to succession, the group's strong performance and the positive trajectory embarked on within the framework of the roadmap" established by Jean-Marie Tritant for 2025 to 2028, said Jacques Richier, chairman of the supervisory board of URW, quoted in the press release.

He praised the outgoing Chairman of the Board, appointed "at a critical time" to transform the group and relaunch its growth "in a particularly difficult external environment."

In debt from the acquisition of Wesfield in 2019, then from the Covid-19 pandemic which forced many shopping centers to close, URW was in a particularly difficult situation at the end of 2020, with a stock price at its lowest.

Standing firm against the strategy of the time, Léon Bressler, former CEO of the company from 1992 to 2006, and the French businessman Xavier Niel led a shareholder revolt to overthrow the former management.

This revolt resulted in Léon Bressler becoming head of the supervisory board and Jean-Marie Tritant becoming chairman of the executive board at the end of 2020. The latter will leave the company at the end of the year, following a transition period.

From storm to profitability

Xavier Niel, a member of the French group's supervisory board, expressed in a press release "his full recognition and gratitude to Jean-Marie Tritant for his commitment to URW."

"While he was leading the group's activities in the United States, he agreed, at the end of 2020, to return to France to take the reins of a group in the midst of a storm," he emphasizes, believing that Jean-Marie Tritant has created "the conditions for a solid and lasting recovery."

The group has now significantly reduced its debt, sold its assets deemed to be of low profitability in the United States and forecasts profitability growth of around 6% until 2028.

"Building on the success of the group's strategic transformation accomplished" during his term, Jean-Marie Tritant said he was "fully confident in URW's ability to generate future growth under the leadership of Vincent (Rouget) and the management board."

Having joined Unibail in 1997, Jean-Marie Tritant, 58, rose through the ranks of the office division to become Managing Director of Shopping Centers and Offices France in 2012. He was then promoted to Managing Director of Operations in 2013 and appointed President of URW in the United States in 2018.

A disciple of Léon Bressler, he told AFP in the spring that it was the former CEO who "recruited" him, "appointed him to the shopping centers," then "sent him to the United States" and "called him to take over as chairman of the board."

Along with the announcement of the change of chairman, URW, which also owns convention centers and is the developer of the Triangle tower in Paris, published on Thursday a 2,4% increase in its gross rental income from its shopping centers over the first nine months of the year, compared to the same period in 2024.

The turnover of retailers present in the group's centers increased by 3,4% and their attendance by 1,8%.

The group also announced the acquisition of 25% of a Saint James Quarter shopping center in Edinburgh, Scotland, one of the twenty most visited shopping centers in Europe, according to URW.