Schroder European Real Estate Investment Trust saw its NAV fall to €188.2m, compared with €199.5m a year earlier, for the full financial year to the end of September.
Despite the fall the REIT said its results were “robust” and excluding special dividends of €12.8m its NAV would have increased on last year’s figure to €201m
During the reporting period Schroder completed two acquisitions for circa €10m – a car show room in Cannes, France (pictured) and an industrial warehouse in Venray in the Netherlands.
The REIT said it has a strong balance sheet with ‘considerable cash reserves and investable firepower of circa €50m including additional debt’.
Sir Julian Berney, chairman of Schroder Real Estate Investment Management, said: “The board is pleased with the resilience of the portfolio, sector and winning city allocations as well as the investment manager’s efforts in delivering on its asset management programme. The success of Paris Boulogne-Billancourt [an office sold by the REIT] is testament to the strategy of acquiring high quality real estate in growth locations and using in-house local active management expertise to create value.
“We are well aware of the ongoing challenges facing global markets but real estate continues to remain attractive relative to other asset classes. By having real asset exposure that is diversified, indexed linked and located in strong, liquid cities like Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Paris, the company is well positioned to deliver on its strategy longer term. In addition, the company’s balance sheet is robust and the existing cash position provides flexibility to strengthen the strategy, either from accessing new investments, share buybacks or further de-levering.”
Jeff O’Dwyer, fund manager for Schroder Real Estate Investment Management, added: “Despite current headwinds, we currently have approximately €50m of firepower to deploy and expect to see an improving pipeline of opportunities over the next six to 12 months that will enable the company to further diversify, grow income and strengthen its exposure to growth cities, regions and sectors.”
