Swiss Prime Site grows stronger than expected
Swiss Prime Site exceeded its targets in the 2021 financial year. All segments contributed to this, according to Switzerland's largest listed real estate company.
Rental income increased by 3.1% to CHF 426.7 million, Swiss Prime Site (SPS) said. The real estate company had set itself a target of 2.5% growth. Reasons for the increase included vacancy reduction from 5.1% to 4.6% (target: 4.6-4.8%), projects completed and transferred to the portfolio, and operating rental income growth (like-for-like: +0.5%). At the same time, SPS achieved major leasing successes in existing properties and projects: 170,000 sqm of newly leased or re-let space exceeded the corresponding figure for 2019 by a good third, the company said. Nevertheless, the covid pandemic still made itself felt in 2021: In the first half of the year in particular, SPS recorded a negative impact on rental income amounting to 7.9 million (previous year: 12, 7 million). According to the company, this includes rent reductions of 4.8 million and lower sales and parking rental income of 3.1 million.
Despite sales of 146.4 million, the portfolio value grew by 470.9 million to 12.8 billion. According to SPS, this was due to investments in projects of 280 million on the one hand and revaluation gains of 318.8 million on the other. Due to the higher rents, the net return on investment generated remained unchanged at 3.2%.
Further increase in assets under management
In the Services segment, Swiss Prime Site Solutions increased its real estate assets under management from 3.0 billion to 3.6 billion. The Group company's operating income rose byTP2T 38.81 toTP2T 18.2 million. SPS expects further growth from the fund business and effects from the acquisition of the fund provider Akara.
The real estate service provider Wincasa increased operating income by 3.7% compared to the previous year, and Jelmoli also generated operating income that was 8.1% higher than in 2020.
Profit plus 25%
Operating income in 2021 increased on a like-for-like basis by 5.1% to 744.9 million. As operating expenses increased under-proportionally by 2.5%, the profitability of the real estate company as well as the Ebit margin increased. SPS realized pre-tax gains of 54.8 million from disposals, and the Group's operating profit (Ebit) before revaluations increased significantly by 12.5% (target: +5.0%) to 396.6 million. Excluding the effects of disposals, this resulted in an increase of 8.0%.
At the corporate profit level, Swiss Prime Site achieved a figure of 507.4 million, an increase of 25.2% compared with the previous year (adjusted for special factors from the sale of Tertianium in February 2020). Excluding revaluation effects, the profit increase was 6.6% to 289.5 million or CHF 3.81 per share.
FFO I (funds from operations, excluding sales of portfolio properties) rose from CHF 3.59 to CHF 3.96 per share in 2021, while FFO II, which includes sales, increased from CHF 3.72 to CHF 4.29. The distribution is expected to be CHF 3.35 per share.
Seat relocation to Zug
Following the acquisition of the Akara Group, the company intends to relocate its headquarters from Olten to Zug in order to realize operational synergies. Shareholders will vote on this and on the election of Brigitte Walter to the Board of Directors at the upcoming Annual General Meeting. With the exception of Barbara Frei-Spreiter, the current members of the Board of Directors are standing for re-election. (ah)
