Hiag: Effects of Covid-19 difficult to assess

The Annual General Meeting of Hiag Immobilien Holding AG on April 23, 2020 approved all proposals of the Board of Directors, including the waiver of a dividend payment for the financial year 2019. This step had already been proposed by the Board of Directors in March, when Hiag presented its annual results and announced a loss of CHF 70 million.

The site developer also provided an assessment of the situation as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic. According to the report, the retail, healthcare, education, hospitality and entertainment tenants in the portfolio currently affected by the emergency restrictions and bans generate about 14% of annual rental income. About 40 of the 1,000 total business tenants have been forced to close all or part of their operations, he said. The large number of these tenants would pay a monthly rent of less than CHF4,000, but individual retailers in the non-food sector with correspondingly large rental areas had also had to close their stores, Hiag said.

By mid-April 2020, he said, about 70 requests for possible rent waivers and deferrals had been received, representing about 7% of all tenants. The monthly rent affected is less than 2% of the total annualized rent. In addition to rent deferrals, Hiag has decided to grant rent reductions or rent waivers on an individual basis to microenterprises and self-employed persons who can provide the relevant evidence, writes Hiag in an assessment. In the case of 15 tenants, the company has voluntarily agreed to waive the rent for a maximum of one month, which to date corresponds to a rent sum of around 0.1% of the annual rental income of the entire company. This would support tenants who are mainly active in the hospitality, leisure, education and healthcare sectors and make an important contribution to an attractive tenant mix on Hiag's sites. The rental volume affected by deferrals currently amounts to a further approximately 0.7% of annual rental income. (ah)