Italian listed property services firm Prelios aims to cut its debt pile by half in the next three years to below €200 mln at year-end 2016, from €388 mln at present.
Italian listed property services firm Prelios aims to cut its debt pile by half in the next three years to below €200 mln at year-end 2016, from €388 mln at present.
Milan-based Prelios, which is currently engaged in a major sell-off of its Karstadt assets acquired at the peak of the market together with other members of the Highstreet consortium, said it will roll out ‘an intensive plan’ for the sale of its equity interests, to be finally completed by 2018.
Earlier this year, it sold the DGAG residential portfolio of 18,000 apartments to Immofinanz's residential property arm Buwog. The package was owned in a joint venture with an investment fund managed by Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management.
‘The company, at operating level, is ready to reverse the trend, by improving margins and positioning itself on the market as aggregating leader in the real estate service sector,’ commented Sergio Iasi, CEO of Prelios, during the presentation of the new three-year plan. This will be obtained through an ‘acceleration of the transition to a pure management company, and the further strengthening of the alliance with the banking system.’
Prelios also confirmed that it is still in talks with Fortress Group for the integration of their real estate asset management and NPL platforms.
The agreement envisages the possible merger between asset managers Prelios Sgr and Torre Sgr as well as between their respective NPL platforms, Prelios Credit Servicing and Italfondiario.
Despite a recent capital increase, Prelios may need a new capital injection in the near future, as it continues to struggle with a difficult market at home. The company saw consolidated revenues shrink to €73 mln in 2013 from €86 mln in 2012. Its net loss widened to €333 mln last year, from a loss of €242 mln a year earlier.
The company managed €6.3 bn of assets at year-end 2013.