Helvetica: HSL fund keeps net proceeds stable
Helvetica's residential fund sold almost a third of its portfolio in the 2024 financial year, with fairly high discounts. This depressed the overall result, but the net result remained virtually unchanged.
The Helvetica Swiss Living Fund (HSL) suffered a decline in rental income in the 2024 financial year as a result of sales. Despite the decline from CHF 29.3 million to CHF 25.1 million, net income remained stable at CHF 10.8 million. This was due to the fact that expenses fell by a similar amount from CHF 18.4 million to CHF 14.3 million, partly due to lower fees. Nevertheless, the sales had a very negative impact on the income statement: because the properties were sold at well below book value, the "realized capital losses" item reduced the previous year's realized income from CHF 8.8 million to CHF -31.7 million. And although the valuation result of CHF +3.6 million was much better than in the previous year (CHF -18.5 million), the overall result fell from CHF -9.7 million to CHF -28.0 million.
The market value of the portfolio now amounts to CHF 530 million and the net fund assets decreased by CHF 36.5 million to CHF 387.4 million. According to the fund management company, the sale of 16 properties for a total of CHF 227 million was carried out with strategic intent: "Targeted sales have aligned the portfolio structure with the focused suburban investment strategy in terms of use, housing mix, structural condition and regional diversification and strengthened the earning power of the core portfolio," it says. Above all, however, this enabled the debt ratio to be reduced from 43.5 to 27.34 %.
IPO in December
A highlight of the financial year was the IPO, which took place on December 10 and opened up the fund to a broader group of investors.
Distribution increases
Meanwhile, the distribution will be increased: Helvetiva cites the "successful portfolio optimization and the strong earnings performance of the core portfolio" as reasons for increasing the distribution from CHF 2.20 to CHF 2.80 per unit in 2024. (aw)
