Last Tuesdays meeting of the Board of Directors of Beni Stabili SpA has approved the Companys statutory and consolidated financial statements.
Net profit for 2005 was significantly influenced by the Groups decision to exercise the option granted by Law no. 266 of 12 December 2005, which has allowed it to revalue its investment properties, paying capital gains tax of 12% on the revaluations applied. This operation, reported in the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2005, as provided for by the above law, has had a positive impact on the consolidated income statement, totalling 243.6m.
After excluding the effects of extraordinary reversals of deferred taxes in both years, the Group reports an improvement in net profit for 2005 compared with 2004 of approximately 9%.
Operating profit of 273.7m is up 6% on 2004, when the figure was 259.2m. The increase is primarily due to an improvement in the net profit on property sales, which rose from 47.2m in 2004 to 73.7m in 2005.
The reduction of around 3% in profit before taxes principally reflects higher finance costs, following adoption of the new accounting standard for measuring financial liabilities and financial assets from 1 January 2005, as required by IAS 32 and IAS 39.
In terms of the balance sheet, property assets amount to 3,224m, with 93% represented by investment properties and the remaining 7% by trading properties.
Net debt has declined from the 1,621m of 2004 to 1,351m of 2005. The substantial reduction, amounting to 267.8m, reflects liquidity generated by sales during the year, which enabled the Group to cut debt by 81.2m and boost liquidity by 188.6m.
As a result of these movements, the Groups debt-to-equity ratio has declined from 1.15 at 31 December 2004 to 0.86 at 31 December 2005.
Gross NAV (Net Asset value), calculated on the basis of the valuation carried out by CB Richard Ellis of the Groups total property assets at 31 December 2005, amounts to 1.106 per share, marking an improvement of around 4.5% on the 1.058 per share of 2004.
NNAV (double net NAV) amounts to 1.006 per share, representing an increase of approximately 20% on the 0.834 per share of 2004; NNNAV (triple net NAV) of 0.946 per share is up 21% on the 0.781 per share of 2004. Both increases primarily reflect the reduced impact of taxation on the property revaluations carried out.
At the Ordinary General Meeting, to be held in first and second call on 20 and 21 April, respectively, the Board plans to propose payment of a dividend of 0.024 per share. This represents a total payout of 40.8m and is 20% up on 2004.
The dividend will be paid on 25 May and the ex-dividend date is 22 May 2006.
Source: Beni Stabili
