2018 has started well for us. The portfolio is showing good and stable results and we are cautiously optimistic for the rest of the year, in spite of the continuing challenging situation in the retail market and the limited supply of attractive acquisition options. We concluded 22 leases for € 5.4 million in total in the first quarter. We realised an average 4.7% rent increase on new leases for core city assets, but rents for our mixed retail locations remained under pressure, and decreased by on average 11.1%.

We expanded our core city assets portfolio by making acquisitions in the historic city centre of Utrecht, and we lowered the risk profile of the portfolio by selling non-strategic properties in the Netherlands and France. We will continue executing our strategy step by step and we confirm are previously announced forecast for the 2018 direct result of between € 2.10 and € 2.20 per share.