Metrovacesa, Spain's largest property company by market value, saw its net loss widen to EUR 788 mln in the first nine months of the year, mostly as a result of heavy devaluations of its property portfolio. The figure compares to a loss of EUR 41.5 mln in the same period a year before. In a statement last week, the Madrid-based property company said its portfolio has shed 9.2% of its value since December 2008, dropping to some EUR 9.17 bn at end-September 2009.
Metrovacesa, Spain's largest property company by market value, saw its net loss widen to EUR 788 mln in the first nine months of the year, mostly as a result of heavy devaluations of its property portfolio. The figure compares to a loss of EUR 41.5 mln in the same period a year before. In a statement last week, the Madrid-based property company said its portfolio has shed 9.2% of its value since December 2008, dropping to some EUR 9.17 bn at end-September 2009.
'This decrease is due mainly to the present market situation and the disinvestments carried out up to September,' the company said. In like-for-like terms, the value of the property assets dropped by 10.7% compared to year-end 2008.
Revenues fell 55% to EUR 509 mln in the year to September 2009, from EUR 1.135 bn in the corresponding period in 2008. The company's net debt stood at EUR 6.2 bn, an increase of EUR 146 mln compared to end-December 2008.
In a separate statement on Friday to Spanish stock market regulator CNMV, the Spanish property group said that the Paris court of appeal has reviewed a sentence that forced Metrovacesa to go ahead with the purchase of an office building located in Paris' Avenue Grande Armée for EUR 85 mln. The Paris court has annulled the acquisition and ordered the reimbursement of EUR 15 mln plus interest to Metrovacesa.
