Dutch listed retail property group Corio expects market circumstances to remain 'challenging' in 2013 after reporting a decline in retail sales last year.
Dutch listed retail property group Corio expects market circumstances to remain 'challenging' in 2013 after reporting a decline in retail sales last year.
Utrecht-based Corio, which last year launched a new strategy to focus on larger and better quality malls, reported a 0.8% drop in retail sales across its overall retail portfolio in 2012, and said 2013 is not expected to bring a major change of direction.
'With less disposable income due to austerity measures or a tendency to save more because of growing uncertainty about the future, people are spending less than in previous years,' CEO Gerard Groener said during the presentation of Corio's 2012 results. 'Looking forward into the near future, 2013 will, without doubt, once again bring very challenging market circumstances.'
Groener said 2013 will be 'a transition year' in which the company will focus on executing its strategy aimed at improving its efficiency and occupancy rate, disposing of its non-core assets and rolling out its new 'Favourite Meeting Places' (FMP) programme.
The company plans to sell its total Traditional Retail Centre (TRC) portfolio of €1.4 bn in the coming three to four years.
Corio's direct result dropped 1.9% to to €262 mln in 2012, in line with the company's outlook. The indirect result was a negative €246.0 mln, versus a negative €48.8 mln in 2011. This was mainly due to net devaluations of €219.6 mln. The company's overall portfolio shed 3.4% of its value last year, while Corio's core FMP assets showed more resilience, dropping 2.8% in the same period.
The average financial occupancy for the retail portfolio increased to 96.6% in 2012, from 96.2% a year before.
Corio is proposing a dividend of €2.76 per share for 2012, in cash or stock.
