Durban - Sirius Real Estate is basking in the glory of a good year that saw it moving its listing to the main boards of the London Stock Exchange and the JSE last month.
The group on Tuesday said in a trading update for the 12 months to end March that it grew substantially with acquisitions of 103 million euros (R1.5 billion) agreed or completed at values materially above book value.
It said annualised rental income also increased 15.70 percent to more than 70 million euros during the period, up from 60.5 million euros reported a year ago.
The group is a leading operator of branded business parks providing conventional space and flexible workspace in Germany.
Chief executive Andrew Coombs said: “This has been an excellent period for the company with further substantial growth being achieved in the year."
Success
"With the move to the main markets in London and Johannesburg best exemplifying the success we have experienced over the past few years and our ambitions for the future. Our focus now is on further strengthening Sirius’s position in the German business park and real estate sector, as we enter our 11th year in operation in this market.”
The company has further enhanced its strong long-term position in the German business park and real estate market, confirming that it expected results for the period to be in line with expectations.
In two weeks, Sirius will hold a Capital Markets Day in London for analysts and institutional investors to provide a more detailed insight into the German commercial real estate market, the German SME sector and the company’s operating platform.
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“We aim consistently to add shareholder value through our asset-management techniques to deliver above average returns from our investment programmes.
"We therefore, have a solid strategy in place for enhancing value from our existing assets and we believe this has been further strengthened with the option to recycle capital from mature and non-core assets as shown by the recent sales.
"We also believe that we are well placed to continue this performance into the future while also carefully monitoring and managing risk,” Coombs added.
The main highlights for the period included: a successful lettings period of more than 150000m² of new deals signed with occupancy increasing to 81 percent. Germany proved to be a resilient investment and occupier market during a year of political change in Europe and continued to be an attractive economy in which to operate.
The group said its proposition of offering a mix of conventional space and flexible workspace across a network of 44 branded business parks throughout Germany was flourishing.
It said rental income had increased over the period, with the second half of the year being particularly strong.
Much of the increase came from the successful capital investment programme aimed at transforming 207000m² of sub-optimal areas into prime lettable space or into one of the Company’s Smartspace products.
The group said more than 160000m² of the space had been fully renovated and was let or being marketed.
The board is looking forward to providing a more detailed report on the company’s trading performance and outlook its full year results for the 12 months to end March to be announced in late June.
Sirius shares rose 2.76 percent on the JSE to close at R9.30.