Raven Property Group has said it still plans to publish its annual results later this month, despite the worsening situation in Ukraine, but dividends would not be paid.
Richard Jewson, chair of the Russia-focused investor, said: “The board is working to do all it can to protect the interests of all stakeholders in these unprecedented times. We sincerely hope for a peaceful outcome to these terrible events.”
Raven, which owns 20m sq ft of warehouses in Russia and more than 500,000 sq ft of offices, said it was “deeply shocked and saddened” by the “tragic consequences” unfolding in Ukraine, following the Russian invasion.
The London-listed company has seen its share price drop by two-thirds this week.
It said it had engaged its advisers to “interpret the impact of the sanctions on its operations”, but added that this was difficult as the picture was changing day by day.
An update issued this morning said: “The immediate focus is on ensuring the group has liquidity in the correct currency in the appropriate jurisdiction. The ability of the company to continue to access the funds of its Russian subsidiaries and whether those funds can be converted to the correct currency at a commercial exchange rate is the greatest uncertainty at this time.”
It added: “We simply do not have clarity on the restrictions that may be placed on the access and movement of funds intra group at this present time. We are working with banks and lawyers in all jurisdictions but it is still too early to get any definitive view on cash flows available to the company. We do not expect that this situation will change while there is no resolution to the events in Ukraine or how long restrictions will affect the group.”
Raven said it was “unlikely that either a distribution to ordinary shareholders in relation to the year ended 31 December 2021 or the preference share coupon for the quarter ending 31 March 2022 will be paid”, but the coupon would accumulate instead.
Raven added that, while 64% of its debt was in roubles, the facilities are hedged with interest rate caps over the term of the loans, protecting them from the recent Central Bank of Russia rate hike.
Operationally, Raven’s portfolio is almost fully let with all rents collected for February and demands now issued for March payments, 29% of which have already been received.
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