Q1 2007 profit amounted to 11m EUR. Higher margins achieved on rental income and residential sales. Sales of new residential projects are progressing at a fast pace. 2007 development program provides for investment of up to 800m EUR in acquisition of land and construction of new projects.
Globe Trade Centre S.A. (GTC) recorded 11.2m EUR profit in Q1 2007, while revenues amounted to 14.9m EUR.
In the first quarter of 2007 GTC achieved impressive margins: 75% gross margin on rental revenues and 36% gross margin on residential sales – an improvement both year-on-year and quarter-by-quarter. The improvement resulted from an increase in both rental rates and occupancy level in office buildings, as well as rising prices of apartments.
The decrease in revenues in Q1 2007 compared to Q1 2006 reflects the divestment of 50% of Galeria Kazimierz in Q2 2006 and Mokotów Business Park in Q4 2006. In Q1 2006 large revaluation gains were booked upon completion of America House (27,000sqm NRA) and Topaz (11,000sqm NRA) – large office buildings in Bucharest and Warsaw, which explains a year-on-year drop in profit.
In Q1 2007 Newton – a class A office building in Cracow was completed, adding 10,400sqm of net rentable area (NRA) to GTC’s investment property portfolio. The new building was leased 100% before completion and boasts top quality international tenants: IBM Consulting, Fortis Bank, Hewitt Associates and Hitachi. Profit from revaluation of Newton in the amount of 10.7m EUR (before tax) was booked in Q1 2007.
Cracow is the second largest city, after Warsaw, of GTC’s activity in Poland. Next to Newton and Galileo the Company is developing Edison and Pascal office buildings. Upon completion those four buildings will create an office park comprising 36,000sqm of modern class A office space.
GTC has been experiencing a significant improvement in office market conditions both in Warsaw and in other large Polish cities. Increasing rental rates and occupancy levels provide an encouraging business environment for accelerated development of office buildings in Poland.
The largest office building in GTC portfolio, Nefryt, is 35% leased one year before completion, following the 5300sqm lease signed with Noble Bank in Q1 2007.
GTC is currently developing in parallel more than 150,000 sqm of net office space in five cities: Warsaw, Cracow, Wroclaw, Katowice and Lodz, while another 200,000sqm of NRA is going to be developed in the further stages.
In addition to construction of office buildings , GTC is developing a regional shopping centre in Czestochowa (50,000 sqm NRA) and 4 residential projects in Warsaw, Cracow, Poznan and Katowice.
GTC residential projects are selling very well across the region, with sales in Bucharest being particularly impressive. In Rose Garden 336 apartments out of 404 available in the first phase have been sold within 5 months. In the Felicity project 76 apartments (out of 112 units offered for sale) were sold within 3 weeks time. In order to facilitate growing demand for high quality apartments, GTC is accelerating the development of those two projects, and will complete subsequent phases earlier than initially scheduled.
In Park Apartments in Belgrade 80% of all units have been sold up- to-date, while in Sasad Resort in Budapest 175 flats out of 271 offered for sale in the first stage have been purchased.
The high pace of new investment continued in 2007. In Hungary GTC finalized the acquisition of the Renaissance Plaza office project in Budapest. The site is situated in an attractive location next to the Vaci ut corridor and will allow construction of 24,000 sqm NRA of class A office space.
In Zagreb, GTC Croatia purchased a 12,000sqm plot, where 18,500sqm of net retail and office space is going to be developed. Centerpoint Zagreb will be GTC’s second project in this city – the first one, Avenue Mall shopping centre, is now fully let and scheduled for opening in the coming months. After the opening Avenue Mall will generate the annual net rental income of 10m EUR.
In Romania GTC started construction of three shopping centres in mid-sized cities: Buzau, Piatra Neamt and Suceava. They will offer in total 35,000sqm of net retail space. The construction is to be completed by the end of 2007 and most of the anchor tenants have been already secured. The chain of retail centers is developed together with Aura Group, where each partner holds 50%. The investment program provides for development up to 10 shopping centers by the end of 2008.
GTC also plans to develop over the next three years 3 to 5 shopping malls in Bulgaria, targeting large Bulgarian cities with significant spending power.
In Q1 2007 Globe Trade Centre S.A. (GTC), for the first time presented and from now on will be presenting IFRS financial reports in euro. Previously GTC was using US dollars as a reporting currency.
In March 2007 the GTC Supervisory Board approved a development program which provides for investment of up to EUR 800m for acquisition of land and construction of new projects in 2007. Such an impressive volume of investment reflects the accelerated growth strategy, which GTC is implementing in the region.