We are delighted to have concluded three new leases in Paris. Last week, we have reached agreement with the leading sneakers and sportswear retailer JD Sports for our property Rue de Rivoli 118-120. We have also attracted one of the fastest growing shoe retailers, Skechers, to replace GAP at Rue de Rivoli 102. After refurbishment both shops are expected to open for business in the spring of 2020 and in the latter part of 2019 respectively. We have also concluded a new lease with UGG for our property at Rue Vieille du Temple 26.

In addition to these new leases we further raised the quality of our portfolio by expanding the clusters in Amsterdam and by selling some non-trategic properties in the Netherlands and Belgium. We also further optimized our financing structure by replacing existing loans with a long-term bond loan from Pricoa Capital Group and by settling existing interest rate derivatives and concluding new interest rate derivatives at more favourable conditions.

Except for Rue de Rivoli 118-120 in Paris, the property portfolio performed well in HY1 2019, in spite of challenging market conditions, and the value of the property portfolio stabilised. We will focus on maintaining a high occupancy rate and further optimizing the portfolio. We expect a direct result for 2019 at the lower end of the guidance range of € 2.00 - € 2.10 per share, mainly due to the vacancy of Rue de Rivoli 118-120 in Paris. We anticipate being able to distribute a stable total dividend of € 2.05 per share for 2019. In line with our dividend policy we will distribute an interim dividend of € 0.58 per share, which is equal to 60% of the direct result for the first half year.