Tamar European Industrial Fund posts results for year ended December 31, 2011

Tamar European Industrial Fund, a Guernsey-registered closed-ended investment company focusing on industrial property assets in Western Europe, today announces its results for the year ended December 31, 2011.

Highlights

  • Good progress has been made on the Nordic sales program with five assets being sold in the second half of 2011 and a further four in 2012. Across the entire portfolio, eight assets were sold in 2011 for £34.9 million (approx. €42 million), 2.2% above their pre-sale valuations.
  • Excess cash generated through the asset sales program will be distributed to shareholders or will be considered for short term opportunistic investments offering exceptional returns.
  • In October, the Group acquired a portfolio of four warehouse properties in France for a gross price, including all transaction costs, of £9.4 million, funded in part by a loan from BNP of £7.2 million. The Group's strategy is to actively manage the assets in order to dispose of them either as a portfolio or individually over the short-term.
  • On August 18, 2011, the Group successfully concluded its refinancing negotiations with pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, extending the facility until April 2015.
  • Following asset sales and regular amortization, debt of £27.3 million has been repaid in the year. At the year-end, net gearing if all available cash balances were applied stood at 52.1% (2010: 56.4%).
  • Asset management and ongoing leasing activity resulted in 58 new leases signed and 91 leases renewed representing over 149,000 m² of space and £7.9 million of gross annualized income.
  • The interim dividend was re-instated in September 2011 at 0.75p per share. The Board proposes to pay a further interim dividend of 0.75p per share on 30 April 2012 to shareholders on the register on April 13, 2012.


Giles Weaver, Chairman, commented: "I am pleased to report that the Group has made solid progress during the year. Following the amendment to the investment policy to allow the Group to dispose of its Nordic assets, as approved by shareholders in August 2011, five assets were sold in 2011 and a further four in 2012 at an aggregate price above their most recent valuations. These sales represent just over 40% of the total Nordic portfolio, with 63% of the Norwegian portfolio and 46% of the Finnish portfolio now sold.

"The Group's principal objective continues to be the disposal of Nordic based assets while maintaining its strong focus on maximizing occupancy and achieving cost savings across the entire portfolio. Opportunistic sales will continue to be made where prices exceed anticipated future returns.

"It is the Board's intention to return excess cash generated from the disposal program to shareholders or to consider making short term investments that are anticipated to generate exceptional returns. Through the new Investment Management Agreement, the Investment Manager will be incentivized to pursue the disposal program to enable the Group to make increased returns to shareholders.

"In the fourth quarter, the Group completed an opportunistic purchase of a portfolio of four high yielding assets in France. The Group is actively managing these assets and will aim to dispose of them over the short term."

Source: FTI Consulting

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