Pretoria - Sirus Real Estate, which owns and operates a portfolio of branded business parks in Germany, has confirmed that its financial results for the six months to September were in line with expectations and that it was on track to achieve a good result for the full year.
The company, which has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) and a secondary listing on the JSE’s alternative exchange (AltX), said on Friday its good start in the first half was helped by strong occupational demand from the German small and medium enterprise (SME) market, together with contributions from new acquisitions and its capital expenditure programme.
Sirius said the success of its SME proposition was shown by occupancy increasing on a like-for-like basis to 81 percent in September, its highest level yet, while like-for-like rental rates a square metre increased to €5.07 in September from €5.02 at the start of the financial year.
The company said like-for-like annualised rent roll increased 2.4 percent to €64.5 million from €63m in the same period.
It said a significant part of the rent roll increase came from the company’s major capital investment programme through which sub-optimal space was transformed into either prime lettable space or one of the company’s premium Smartspace product range.
Sirius added that it expected to complete the acquisition of a 19 602m2 multi-let office building in Wiesbaden for €17.7 million ton Monday.
It said 65 percent of the 19 602m2 gross lettable space in the building was occupied by three tenants, who paid a total annual rental income of €1.88 million and had an average unexpired lease term of two years and seven months.
The company said the significant vacant space on this site also represented an investment opportunity to create new prime space and increase rental income.
This proposed acquisition follows the purchase in September of the Dresden business park for €28.6 million.
Andrew Coombs, the chief executive of Sirius, said it had been a good start to the current financial year and the company had continued to increase revenue, acquire further assets, reduce the cost of debt and improve profitability.
“Our role now is to continue this momentum and take advantage of the opportunities available to the business. We have a clear strategy to do so, one element of which is to pursue our aim of moving to a main market listing on both the London Stock Exchange and JSE, which will help support our objectives,” he said.
Sirius expects to release its interim financial results on November 28.
BUSINESS REPORT