Sirius Real Estate plc (LON:SRE), the leading operator of branded business parks providing conventional space and flexible workspace in Germany, today announced its condensed consolidated financial results for the twelve months ended 31 March 2020.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Profit before tax of €110.8 million (FY 2019: €144.7 million)
• Strong like-for-like annualised rent roll increase of 6.1% to €81.2 million (FY 2019: €76.5 million)
• Like-for-like average rental rates increased by 4.1% to €6.07 per sqm (FY 2019: €5.83)
• Funds from operations increased by 15.1% to €55.7 million (FY 2019: €48.4 million)
• Like-for-like book value increased by 9.9% or €96.3 million to €1,069.2 million (FY 2019: €972.9 million)
• NAV per share increased by 8.9% to 77.35c (FY 2019: 71.01c), with EPRA NAV per share of 80.62c (FY 2019: 74.82c)
• Titanium venture with AXA IM – Real Assets completed – €168.0 million seed portfolio transferred from Sirius and first acquisition made in March 2020
• €190.0 million of financial resources generated from completion of Titanium and financing activity
• €120.0 million of acquisitions completed providing a mix of stable income and opportunity
• Average cost of debt reduced to 1.49% and first unsecured debt facility for €50.0 million completed
• Dividend per share of 1.80c in respect of the second half of FY 2020 authorised, giving total dividend for year of 3.57c based on 67% of FFO pay out for the first half and 65% for the second half (FY 2019: 3.36c based on 70% of FFO pay out)
COVID-19 UPDATE AND OUTLOOK
• April collections within 98.8% of normal working practice and May collections in line with April
• Enquiries continuing at normal levels of a monthly average of c.1,200
• 130 new lettings in May 2020 covering 11,282 sqm (April 2020: 119 lettings/8,166 sqm)
• Of €6.8 million of annual income (108,000 sqm) up for renewal in Apr/May 2020, 74% have renewed (April/May 2019: €7.4 million (125,000 sqm) 74%)
• Less than 10% of on-site business park employees working remotely since Monday 11 May
• Employees working at head office gradually increased to 50%
• Sirius will continue to use its platform across Germany to work with tenants throughout the current ‘back to work’ phae of the COVID-19 pandemic
• In light of the on-going uncertainty with regards to the impact of COVID-19 in the current financial year, the Board does not consider it prudent to provide full year financial guidance but will continue to monitor the situation and update the market in due course
• The Board remains confident that the Company is well placed to meet the challenges ahead and continue to deliver attractive and sustainable returns for shareholders in the future
Andrew Coombs, Chief Executive Officer of Sirius Real Estate, said: “It’s good to be reporting another successful year, having achieved our sixth consecutive year of greater than 5 per cent annual organic growth in our rent roll and 15 per cent growth in funds from operations, our key measure of operational performance.
“While we look to the future with caution, due to the uncertainties created by COVID-19, I believe the Company is well placed to endure the economic difficulties being created by the crisis and also take advantage of opportunities with our strong balance sheet. We remain focused on delivering attractive risk-adjusted returns by way of active asset management throughout the property cycle. With our significant cash resources available to make acquisitions, further vacancy to develop and reversion potential to capture, Sirius is well positioned to meet the challenges ahead.
“We’ve acquired a further €120 million of additional assets, increasing our presence in our target cities, from which we are confident of extracting significant value by playing to the strengths of our integrated business model and track record of maximising occupation and growing rental levels.
“Taking advantage of the favourable lending conditions during the year, we optimised our capital structure with a number of initiatives that have resulted in a reduction of our average cost of debt to 1.5 per cent from 2.0 per cent.”
