22/10/2009
Resilient financial and operational performance and significant progress on refinancing initiatives
Luxembourg – 22 October 2009 – ProLogis European Properties (Euronext: PEPR), Europe’s largest owner of modern distribution facilities, today reports results for the quarter and nine months ended 30 September 2009.
Highlights
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Quarter to 30 September 2009
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Nine months to 30 September 2009
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1 Based on EPRA (European Public Real Estate Association) Best Practices Policy Recommendations, issued in July 2009
View the full Results for the quarter and nine months ended 30 September 2009 in PDF format (512KB)
Commenting on the results, Peter Cassells, chief executive officer of PEPR, said:
"Our financial and operational performance for the first nine months of 2009 remained resilient during the continued challenging market conditions, demonstrating our unrelenting focus on portfolio occupancy and active asset management. Both our own portfolio management activities and general logistics market trends have been in line with our guidance for the year, and we remain well placed to continue to generate strong levels of income.
"Aside from maintaining portfolio performance through the downturn in the market, our immediate focus remains on deleveraging our balance sheet, by reducing or refinancing near-term debt maturities, and improving our future financial flexibility. To that end, I am pleased to report that we have successfully completed approximately €274 million of new or extended secured debt packages to date, sold €190 million of assets and repaid approximately €459 million of debt outstanding at the end of 2008.
"2009 continues to be a testing time for the European commercial property sector. As such, in addition to our debt refinancing initiatives, we are continuing to review capital raising alternatives to provide PEPR with additional financial flexibility. The plans currently being evaluated include a possible offering of fully underwritten convertible preferred units to existing unitholders and a conversion to a SICAF structure, which would enable us to raise equity at a discount to net asset value. We intend to adopt the plan that will be most beneficial to our investors and expect to announce the plan later in the fourth quarter, once we have received the appropriate approvals."