LONDON (Alliance News) - Arricano Real Estate PLC said on Thursday that pretax profit dropped in the first half of 2018 due to a fall in revaluation gains, in spite of revenue growth.
In addition, the Ukraine-based real estate developer and shopping centre operator said it has appointed Urmas Somelar as chairman with immediate effect.
He has replaced Philip Scales, who was chairman on an interim basis since September 2017.
Somelar's most recent role was chief risk officer at Estonian financial services company Versobank from late 2017 to early 2018.
Arricano reported for the six months to the end of June, pretax profit dropped to USD16.2 million from USD18.4 million the year before, due to a fall in gains from the revaluation of investment properties to USD9.8 million from USD15.6 million.
This was in spite of revenue growth to USD14.8 million from USD12.9 million, due to net operating income rising by 32% to USD11.0 million from USD8.3 million the prior year.
Occupancy rates increased to 99.7% from 98.8%, while its net asset value rose to USD74.3 million from USD52.2 million.
The total fair value of Arricano's portfolio rose to USD240.4 million as at June 30, up from USD221.2 million at the end of December.
"This has been a good period for the business delivering increases in revenue, underlying profitability and the value of our portfolio. While this is a very satisfying result, we continue to push the business in all areas, a key focus in this year has been to achieve a greater understanding of what the visitors to shopping centres are looking for, so that we can better anticipate their needs thereby making a visit to an Arricano shopping centre, a premium experience," said Chief Executive Officer Mykhailo Merkulov.