CS REF Hospitality maintains distribution forecast
Credit Suisse Real Estate Fund Hospitality has been significantly affected by the Covid 19 pandemic. Nevertheless, the distribution is expected to be CHF 2.50 to CHF 2.80 per unit, as forecast in July 2020.
Urban tourism is suffering particularly badly from the restrictions associated with the Covid 19 pandemic. Forecasts indicate a decline in accommodation of 14% to 49% in 2020, depending on the canton, with the cantons of Geneva, Lucerne and Zurich being the hardest hit.
Credit Suisse Real Estate Fund Hospitality (CS REF Hospitality), with its city hotels, cannot escape this trend. According to Credit Suisse, the fund has recorded lower rental income due to the pandemic. According to the statement, redemptions for the first six months of fiscal 2020 were CHF 4.06 million, with additional redemptions of CHF 2.15 million as of Oct. 31, 2020. Nevertheless, as communicated in July, an unchanged distribution of CHF 2.50 to CHF 2.80 is currently expected.
In the meantime, the planning work for the total renovation of the Swissôtel Zurich has been accelerated so that a building application can be planned for the beginning of 2021, the statement continues. In this context, a proportion of micro-apartments is also being examined, according to Credit Suisse. Together with the hotel tenants, solution approaches would be developed to meet the challenges of the Corona pandemic. Thanks to the urban location, solutions that can be implemented in the medium and long term would be possible, depending on the type of property, its condition and the contractual situation, which would reduce dependence on pure hotel operations.
CS REF Hospitality will present its annual report for 2020 at the end of March 2021. (ah)
