Sydney-listed Valad Property Group said that it is focusing on growing its European business after the group posted a full-year loss of A$165 mln (EUR 115 mln) in the year to end-June.
Sydney-listed Valad Property Group said that it is focusing on growing its European business after the group posted a full-year loss of A$165 mln (EUR 115 mln) in the year to end-June.
The result was heavily influenced by writedowns and impairments centred on the group's portfolio in Australia and New Zealand. However, the full-year loss was far lower than the A$1.5 bn booked a year earlier.
Valad Property Group's real estate investment management business manages EUR 5.6 bn in assets, generating annual fee income of EUR 50.4 mln. Of this, EUR 44.8 mln was derived from Valad Europe. Europe contributed about EUR 45 mln to the total group revenue of EUR 88 mln.
The European business increased funds under management by more than EUR 700 mln in the past 12 months and refinanced over EUR 200 mln of debt facilities on behalf of one of its funds.
Valad secured leases for over 1 million m2 of space, in 1,500 transactions, of which 265,000 m2 was in Germany and 230,000 m2 was in the Nordic region. In the UK, where Valad manages a total of 1.5 million m2, it renewed leases on 74,000 m2.
Martyn McCarthy, CEO of Valad Europe, commented: 'We have made excellent progress this year in our European business. The strategy to focus on growing our investment management business has resulted in significant wins.'
The company said it is selling majority stakes in assets to reduce debt and is working on expanding its fund management operations.