Sirius rent collections for May at normal levels

SIRIUS Real Estate said yesterday that it collected 98.8 percent of rents in April and had normal collections in May as the country began easing out of the coronavirus (Covid-19) restrictiwons.

“Sirius will endeavour to use its platform across Germany to work with tenants throughout this ‘back to work’ phase.

“However, we do very much recognise that this crisis will have a beginning, a middle and an end and from Sirius’ perspective we are most certainly not as yet at the end,” Sirius chief executive Andrew Coombs said.

The company said its dividend per share rose 6.3 percent to 3.57 euro cents (R0.73) per share for the year to March 31 after the life-for-like annualised rental roll increased by 6.1 percent (2019: 7.1 percent).

The rental rate per square metre increased 4.1 percent to €6.07, the group said in results yesterday.

Coombs described the operational performance for the year to March as “excellent”, with funds from operations growing by 15.1 percent to €55.7 million. Net asset value per share increased by 8.9 percent to 77.35 euro cents from 71.01 euro cents in 2019.

Although the group was cautious about the future due to uncertainties created by Covid-19, Coombs believed they were well placed to endure economic difficulties created by the virus, and to also take advantage of opportunities.

“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,” he said.

However, the group did not provide guidance for the current financial year due to the uncertainties.

In the past year the sale of the seed portfolio into the Titanium venture was completed and a first acquisition was completed for €58.9m. Some €190m was generated through Titanium financing activity and asset recycling.

Net loan-to-value ended the year at 32.8 percent (32.4 percent). Average cost of debt fell to 1.5 percent from 2 percent.

Headline earnings a share rose by 4.2 percent to 4.51 euro cents.

Coombs said it had been the sixth consecutive year of greater than 5 percent annual organic growth in the rent roll and 15 percent growth in funds from operations, the group’s key measure of operational performance.

The final dividend of 1.80 euro cents per share represented a 4 percent increase on the equivalent dividend last year.

Sirius shares rose 1.02 percent on the JSE yesterday to close at R16.77.