Europe's largest listed retail REIT Unibail-Rodamco has announced plans to buy back up to €750 mln of shares from investors.
The company said the repurchase programme was expected to run until October 10 2017, and would be executed according to EU regulations and in line with French financial markets authority rules.
All repurchased shares will be cancelled in accordance with the French commercial code.
Unibail-Rodamco noted that as the buy-back would be dependent on market conditions, the full amount might not be reached. It said that its 'level of comfort' for its loan-to-value ratio of around 40% would not be affected.
In its recent financial results for the first semester of 2017, the REIT reported a rise of 3.5% in net rental income across its properties, despite a further decline of 4.8% at its Dutch shopping centres.
The company also announced that it was planning to deliver five new developments for the second half of the year, including the new 80,900 m2 Wroclavia shopping centre in Wroclaw; the 42,000 m2 extension of Centrum Chodov in Prague, the 29,900 m2 extension of Carré Sénart and the 7,600 m2 extension of Parly 2, both in the Paris region, as well as the 10,500 m2 extension and full redevelopment of Glòries in Barcelona.
The average pre-letting of these projects stands at 94%. Overall, Unibail-Rodamco's development pipeline amounts to €8.1 bn.
