This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
NEWLY listed large format centres owner Aventus Retail Property Fund has delivered its first funds from operations result of $11 million for the half year to December 31, inline with forecast.
The statutory result was a loss of $22.1 million, which included one-time transaction costs associated with its October 16 IPO listing of $54.0 million, follow-on acquisitions costs of $2.9 million and increase in fair value of investment properties of $23.2 million. The IPO transaction costs are slightly below the PDS forecast.
The fund’s result attributable to its post-IPO performance is a loss of $23.1 million.
The fund announced a distribution of 2.89 cents per unit.
CEO Darren Holland said the group is pleased with the progress made since listing.
“We continue to broaden the diversity of the tenancy mix of the portfolio to reduce the fund’s exposure to housing cycles.
“To that extent, the number of retailers and service providers that are not traditionally large format retail tenants has increased from 28% to 31% since June 15. The fund’s growing portfolio of centres have attracted new offerings such as supermarkets, government services providers, pet products and food and beverage providers,” he pointed out.
The value of the portfolio increased to $975.6 million, tenancies to 404, with a total GLA of 384,889 sqm and site area of 930,545 sqm.
The fund negotiated 42 leases over a total GLA of 28,000 sqm and lifted portfolio occupancy to 97.5% (June 15: 97.1%). The Weighted Average Lease Expiry remained stable at 4.0 years by gross income.
Meanwhile Holland said the fund has limited exposure to the retailers Dick Smith and Masters.
“The fund’s exposure to Dick Smith is limited to three stores and less than 1% of FY17 net property income. The fund has one Masters showroom within the portfolio representing less than 3% of FY17 NPI and the lease is guaranteed by Woolworths Limited. Both tenants continue to pay rent under their leases and neither tenant has notified the fund of their intentions in relation to their leases,” he added.
Holland said Avenus is performing in-line with expectations and the acquisitions are forecast to be earnings accretive before the end of FY16.
“We believe consolidating the traditionally highly fragmented sector will provide growth and scale opportunities for the fund,” Holland concluded.
Australian Property Journal
