Listed German property company IVG Immobilien saw its shares decline by up to 12% during trading in Frankfurt on Wednesday after a negative response from analysts to the company's 2007 results presentation. IVG's shares opened at EUR 20.79 but dropped to EUR 18.55 - the largest decline since 21 September 2001 - in early trading before climbing back to EUR 20.1 by 4pm.

Listed German property company IVG Immobilien saw its shares decline by up to 12% during trading in Frankfurt on Wednesday after a negative response from analysts to the company's 2007 results presentation. IVG's shares opened at EUR 20.79 but dropped to EUR 18.55 - the largest decline since 21 September 2001 - in early trading before climbing back to EUR 20.1 by 4pm.

IVG's shares suffered after several analysts cut their ratings for IVG and adjusted their target price downwards despite what IVG described as its record results for 2007.

IVG said its consolidated net profit for 2007 increased by 162% to EUR 301 mln and it proposed to increase dividend to 70 cents per share.

But IVG warned the turbulence in the financial and capital markets was affecting the company's business performance. 'IVG Investment will considerably benefit from the expected rent increases of the properties added to the portfolio. However, in view of the market environment, IVG does not expect any contributions from value adjustments, either realised or unrealised. The EBIT generated by the IVG Funds division will be at the level of the previous year. The IVG Development division is also expected to show a positive performance and the EBIT to be at least at the level of the previous year.'

IVG also declined to give guidance on its 2008 performance. CEO Wolfhard Leichnitz said: 'The capital markets are in a deep crisis, which will have a considerable impact on our industry. A reliable quantitative forecast for 2008 is therefore not possible. Since we do not assume that we achieve any increase in value from our investment portfolio in 2008, we expect a much lower consolidated net profit in 2008 than in the previous year. This outlook does not reflect potential effects on our profit from a monetisation of our caverns business.'

IVG did say that it had prepared the ground in 2007 for the launch of a EUR 3.5 bn real estate investment trust this year. About 25% of the IVG Office REIT will be placed on the stock market.