CAPE TOWN - Sirius Real Estate, the owner of branded business and industrial parks in Germany, said on Friday that it had collected 97.7 percent of rent and service charges billed in the first nine months to December 2020.
Landlords have been struggling through Covid-19 lockdown restrictions to collect rent from tenants who have been financially distressed through lockdowns and weak economies.
Sirius, which has a secondary listing on the JSE, said its strong rent and service charge collection had continued.
In the 2020 calendar year, it had collected 98 percent of rent, and only wrote off €205 000 (about R3 billion) out of total rent and service charges of €141.2 million.
From a tenant base of over 5 000, 16 deferred payment plans had been entered into with 43 tenants adversely affected by the pandemic amounting to €0.4m.
Cash collection rates for January 2021 were in line with previous months with 94.3 percent of rent and service charges billed received, compared to 95 percent for the same month in 2020.
Sales were in line with previous months. Enquiries for January were about 20 percent more than those in January 2020.
Chief executive Andrew Coombs said they had allocated increased resources and focus to support their tenants.
“Our enquiries, sales and cash collection performance, as well as the robust commitment of the German government to support business throughout 2021, give us confidence to continue to trade well through the Covid-19 environment,” he said.
The company has cash of more than €70m, enabling it to make acquisitions as opportunities arise.
BUSINESS REPORT