Sirius Real Estate has ample headroom as activity picks back up

(Sharecast News) - Germany-focused business park operator Sirius Real Estate said that a €20m (£18.13m) drawdown on its unsecured Schuldschein loan was due on 3 July, giving it €123m of unrestricted cash and undrawn facilities.
The FTSE 250 company said rent and service charge collection in the month was at 99.8% of normal levels, with average monthly enquiry levels above 1,200 for April, May and June.

A total of 165 new lettings were completed in June, covering 11,242 square metres and generating €0.88m of annualised rent.

The firm's like-for-like annualised rent roll as at the end of June, compared to the end of March, had reduced by around €0.48m.

Sirius said a dividend of 1.8 euro cents per share, representing 65% of funds from operations for the second half of the financial year ended 31 March, would be paid on 20 August.

Conferencing income returned to normal monthly levels in June, the board reported, with a shortfall from March compared to the prior year estimated at €0.2m,

The board noted that the RICS Material Valuation Uncertainty Leaders Forum advised on 11 June that reporting 'material valuation uncertainty' could no longer be appropriate for UK-based industrial and logistics assets.

It said it was waiting to see the position adopted in Germany with regard to its next valuations in September.

"Whilst the last few months have been a hugely challenging time for people both personally and economically, we have weathered the first phase of this crisis with relative success," said chief executive officer Andrew Coombs.

"Looking ahead, we are well positioned with a strong balance sheet to take advantage of opportunities in the market.

"We remain focused on delivering attractive risk-adjusted returns by way of active asset management throughout the economic and property cycles and we have significant cash resources to make acquisitions as well as further vacancy to develop and reversion potential to capture."

At 0833 BST, shares in Sirius Real Estate were up 2.61% at 78.19p.