At his last General Meeting, the Chairman of the Board of IVG Immobilien AG, Eckart John von Freyend, who is resigning his office as of 30 June 2006, presented a stunning earnings forecast. In 2006, the consolidated net income after taxes and before minority interests will increase to €135 million (PY: €110 million). This opens up potential for further dividend increases. The Bonn Group had previously been forecasting consolidated net income after taxes for the current year of €125 million.
In addition, the Company is also anticipating a significant increase in its net asset value (NAV) to provisionally more than €22 (PY: €18.00) by the end of end of 2006. The current forecast for 2008 was increased from €20 to more than €24 per share. "In addition to appreciation in real estate and investment fund business, a key factor in the rise in net asset value is the partial inclusion of cavern development potential. The construction of the 65 caverns, which has been secured in line with planning law, will increase net asset value by around €10 per share in total," says Chairman of the IVG Board Eckart John von Freyend, explaining the positive outlook for IVG.
The General Meeting resolved the distribution of a dividend for 2005 of €0.38 per share (PY: €0.35).
The General Meeting also resolved to expand the Supervisory Board from six to nine persons. At the General Meeting, Gert Haller resigned his position on the Supervisory Board on account of his new role as the Head of the Office of the Federal President of the Republic of Germany. The Chief Executive of Axa Real Estate Investment Managers Paul Marcuse and Friedrich Merz were elected as new members of the Supervisory Board. The General Meeting also appointed Eckart John von Freyend to the Supervisory Board effective 1 July 2006.
After eleven years as the Chairman of the Board of IVG, John von Freyend will now be joining the Supervisory Board. From 1 July 2006, the new head of IVG will be Wolfhard Leichnitz, who was previously CEO of Viterra AG.
Leichnitz will join the IVG Board as of 1 June 2006 and take over as its Chairman as of 1 July 2006. Effective 1 July 2006, Bernd Kottmann will be appointed as Deputy Chairman.
Speaking informally at the General Meeting, John von Freyend also announced that construction of the "Airrail Center Frankfurt" will commence this year. Negotiations with international hotel operators and interested parties for office space are already at an advanced stage. With around 200,000 m of gross floor area, the Airrail Center is one of the largest real estate developments in Germany and is being built at the Rhein-Main Airport in Frankfurt above the ICE long-distance train station.
Airrail will set new benchmarks in Europe both for networking air, road and rail transportation systems and for a cutting edge concept for living and working in the airport city. IVG and Fraport will be reporting on the progress of the Airrail project in Frankfurt within the next time.
Source: IVG Immobilien AG
