Spazio Investment, the Amsterdam-based industrial real estate firm managed by Italy's Pirelli RE, said that its Spazio Industriale fund is likely to miss its full-year disposal target. The company said in September it planned to dispose of up to EUR 140 mln of assets by the end of 2008, but as the financial market crisis widened in the second half of the year it now expects sales in the full year to amount to just EUR 70 mln. This includes EUR 57 mln worth of properties the company agreed to sell in the first six months of 2008.
Spazio Investment, the Amsterdam-based industrial real estate firm managed by Italy's Pirelli RE, said that its Spazio Industriale fund is likely to miss its full-year disposal target. The company said in September it planned to dispose of up to EUR 140 mln of assets by the end of 2008, but as the financial market crisis widened in the second half of the year it now expects sales in the full year to amount to just EUR 70 mln. This includes EUR 57 mln worth of properties the company agreed to sell in the first six months of 2008.
'The intensifying global financial crisis has impacted on the ability of the company's external manager, Pirelli RE, to effect further sales,' the company said in a statement. It added: 'This reflects a more general transaction freeze in the Italian real estate market from all major real estate operators.'
As a result of the lower than expected sales, the company no longer expects to meet its target of a 10% increase in total dividends for this year.
The company also said it intends to return up to EUR 25 mln in capital to shareholders by way of a tender offer to be carried out in the first half of January 2009. Spazio has received letters of intent for about EUR 100 mln of the company's assets from potential buyers.
