Rotterdam,
14
August
2014
|
07:30
Europe/Amsterdam

Vastned 2014 half-year report

Premium city strategy improves quality of the portfolio

Key points first half year 2014:

- Direct result € 1.21 per share
- Occupancy rate improved further to 96.6% (premium city high street shops: 99.1%)
- Premium city high street shops’ 2.3% value increase keeps value of total portfolio stable
- Like-for-like gross rent growth 0.1% (premium city high street shops: 1.8%)
- Divestments of non-core property: € 53.7 million, sold around bookvalue
- Vastned invested € 11.6 million on Dutch high streets
- Share of premium city high street shops 55% (31 March 2014: 52%/ year-end 2013: 46%)
- Successful placement of € 110 million in convertible bonds
- Estimated direct result 2014: € 2.10 - € 2.30 per share
- Estimated dividend 2014 at least € 1.90 per share- Reinier Walta nominated for Vastned CFO

 

Vastned, the listed European retail property company focusing on venues for premium shopping, has realised an improvement of the occupancy rate to 96.6% and an increase of the share of premium city high street shops to 55%.

 

Taco de Groot, Vastned CEO
In the first six months of 2014 we have made further progress in the execution of our high street strategy. After realising key objectives at the end of 2013, the strategy was updated with focus on growth in premium cities, and Annelou De Groot started as country manager Netherlands on 1 January 2014. Furthermore, we successfully finalised the sale of the Spanish shopping centres/galleries and a retail park, and disposed of € 54 million in non-core property in the Netherlands, Belgium and France, around book value. The favourable value developments in the category premium cities, acquisitions, and the divestments pushed the share of premium city high street shops up to 55%. General market developments show that retailers are still struggling with poor consumer confidence and low spending. While the situation appears to be improving somewhat over the past few months, we remain cautious about any lasting economic recovery. Polarisation between popular and less popular retail locations is increasing. Our customers, retailers, remain cautious and only choose the best locations, where they can reach and serve their customers best. This is also reflected in our results. Premium city high street shops are showing strong results on key parameters like occupancy rate, value movements and rent growth. The result improved from € 0.7 million negative 30 June 2013 to € 9.4 million positive 30 June 2014. This strengthens our confidence to continue executing our strategy in the same way. Since we have successfully concluded the majority of the divestments we envisaged, we will be focussing on targeted acquisitions in the near future. At the publication of our annual results for 2013, we expressed our expectation for the direct result for 2014, in line with the strategy aimed at more stable and more predictable results. We maintain our estimate of a direct result for 2014 of between € 2.10 and € 2.30 per share. We add to that the expectation that we will distribute a dividend of at least € 1.90 per share for the full year 2014.
Taco de Groot, Vastned CEO

About Vastned

Vastned is a listed European retail property company focusing on venues for premium shopping. Vastned invests in selected cities in Europe and Istanbul, with a clear focus on the best retail property in the most popular shopping streets in the bigger cities (high streets). Vastned’s tenants are strong and leading international and national retail brands. The property portfolio has a size of approximately € 1.5 billion.