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CA Immo Pays Dividends for the First Time
The Austrian real estate company reported figures for 2011 today. The first-time consolidation of Europolis and successful sales lead to an increase in earnings. Profits were up by 38%.
Bruno Ettenauer, CEO of CA Immo: "2011 was a good year for CA Immo. We have reached our main targets and can therefore as planned distribute a dividend to our shareholders for the first time."
Measured against 2010, rental income increased by 61.5% to € 265.6m. In regional terms more than a half of gross revenues derived from Eastern and South Eastern Europe. Property sales totalling some € 324.7m were closed in 2011 contributing around € 52.8m to earnings in total.
The largest transaction of 2011 was the sale of the 51% shares in the Olympia Shopping Centres in the Czech Republic, further sales are related to development projects and undeveloped sites scheduled for development in Germany. The revaluation result for 2011 was € 49.1m (2010: € 32.1 m).
From a regional perspective, the revaluation result arises from an appreciation of € 69.2m in Germany, and negative revaluations in the Eastern and South Eastern Europe segment (€ -16.7m) and Austria (€ -3.4m).
EBIT increased substantially from € 176.5m in 2010 to € 285.0m. The financial result of € -177.9m (€ -107.7m in 2010) reflected additional interest payable (+37.4%) in connection with Europolis as well as a negative (non-cash) effect from the valuation of interest-rate hedges amounting to -22.5m. Earnings before taxes (EBT) stood at € 107.1m in 2011 (compared to € 68.8 m in 2010), whilst consolidated net income after minorities was € 62.6m (against € 45.4m in 2010).
These developments are also reflected in the FFO (Funds from Operations) which increased from € 20.5m in 2010 to € 66.2m in 2011 (including property sales, before minorities, after actual taxes).
On the basis of these results, the company intends to propose the payment of a dividend of 38 cents per share for the first time to the Ordinary General Meeting for 2011. This corresponds to the stated target of around 2 % of net asset value, which stood at € 19.17 per share as at 31 December 2011. It is planned to structure the distribution as a repayment of capital in accordance with Austrian tax law, making it tax-free for natural persons with domicile in Austria, who hold shares of CA Immo in their private accounts.
The company said it does not expect general conditions to change significantly in 2012, either on the rental market or the transaction market. Against this background, CA Immo anticipates a modest rise of around 2 % in rental income: additional rental revenue from project completions in particular should more than compensate for losses of rents due to sales.
The company will aim to transact asset sales of approximately € 300m to € 350m, split more or less equally between Eastern Europe and Germany. Funds released by the sales will mainly be used for the purposes of debt reduction. A volume of around € 300m will be invested in the portfolio, especially in ongoing development projects.