Epic Suisse aims for the stock exchange
Commercial real estate company Epic Suisse announces that - depending on market conditions - it plans to go public and list on the SIX Swiss Exchange in the coming months.
As part of the IPO, Epic Suisse AG expects to raise gross proceeds of approximately CHF 200 million through the issuance of new shares. "We aim to use a significant portion of the proceeds from the IPO for attractive acquisitions in our target markets," says CEO Arik Parizer. The real estate company is also announcing an attractive dividend policy with a fixed dividend of CHF2.60 per share for the 2020 financial year and a targeted payout of over 80% of funds from operations (FFO) thereafter.
Epic's real estate portfolio currently consists of 21 income properties and three properties under development with a total market value of CHF 1.3 billion (as of 30/06/2020). Retail properties (mainly food-oriented) account for 43.6% of the market value, office properties 37.9% and logistics properties 8.7%. The properties have a total lettable area of 248,000 sqm.
According to the information, the properties are mainly located in the Lake Geneva region (50.8%) and in the Zurich economic area (40.0%). Other properties are located in the cantons of St. Gallen and Glarus. A vacancy rate of 6.7% is reported for the first half of 2020; adjusted for two projects with strategically planned vacancies, the vacancy rate is 3.8%. The weighted average remaining lease term (WALT) is 8.1 years.
Epic's portfolio was little affected by the Covid 19 pandemic, according to the company. In the second quarter, it collected 97% of rental income, a total of 27.3 million.
Epic Group is owned by the Israeli real estate company Alrov Group and the family of real estate investor Roni Greenbaum. The founding shareholders have announced that they will not sell any shares in the IPO, but will remain fully invested in Epic. (ah)
