Sirius amasses €100m war chest for expansion

GERMAN-focused property investor Sirius Real Estate said yesterday that it had amassed a war chest of more than €100 million (R1.48 billion) during the year to end March to bolster its expansion programme.

Chief executive Andrew Coombs said the workspace operating group would continue to grow while recycling mature and non-core assets into new business parks with much greater potential for income and capital growth into the future.

“We still have the financial capacity to acquire more than €100m of assets, for which we have a healthy pipeline of opportunities located in our target areas around Germany's big seven cities, where we have extensive market knowledge and expertise,” Coombs said.

The group had previously said it was planning to dispose of two non-core sites in its portfolio to unlock capital it can re-invest into its asset recycling programme. One of the identified non-core assets, Bremen Brinkman business park, was sold for €15.5m last month.

The group said at the time that the disposal of the asset at book value meant they had unlocked €15.5m of capital that could now be re-invested.

In March, Coombs said that with an annualised rental income of €1.5m and 71 percent occupancy, the property provided a good combination of both initial income and valueadd opportunity.

Yesterday, the company said it had acquired 13 new assets for €163.7m during the period. The company reported an increase in total income from €68.8m in the comparative period to €72.1m. Rental income rose 12 percent to €79.5m from €71m, assisted by two acquisitions during the year.

The group said its profit before tax rose 17 percent to €89.6m during the period, while its book value of portfolio increased by €126.1m to €967.3m. Like-for-like annualised rental income rose by 6.3 percent.

The company, which is also listed on the local bourse, declared a total dividend for the year of 3.16 cents – an increase of 8.2 percent. The group is also listed in London.

Sirius declined 0.96 percent on the JSE yesterday to close at R11.29.