Wereldhave

The company has maintained steady growth by spreading risk across all sectors and a range of mainly eurozone markets, while also concentrating on development Wereldhave is a company that keeps defying fashion. It has not gone down the road of focusing on either a single sector or geographic region. Instead it sticks to a policy of spreading investments and risks across all sectors and several countries. Restructuring and rejuvenating the portfolio to optimise its earnings potential is another part of its investment strategy. This relies in part on adding properties from a large development programme, which also helps Wereldhave to maintain a distinct profile. Typically, 10% to 15% of assets are in the development portfolio, adding to the fund’s risk profile, as well as potentially boosting income return. Whatever the merits of alternative investment fashions, Wereldhave has a good track record for steadily increasing income returns. Last year, net income rose 12% (overall and per share). This was achieved with relatively conservative financing. At the end of 2001 equity cover of total assets stood at 58.5%. Unlike many of its competitors, Wereldhave is not in a hurry to expand to acquire critical mass. The fund growth is organic and even the target size of €2.5bn by the end of 2005 does not look too ambitious. Last year saw few changes to the portfolio. Some smaller properties in Holland, Hungary and the UK were sold for €14.7m. No standing investments were acquired, but completed and let developments were added to the investment portfolio and new developments were acquired. The current year has started with a bang. Like other funds, Wereldhave has turned to Nordic waters to come up with a catch, in the shape of Scandinavia’s largest shopping centre. In January it acquired the 95,000m2 Itakeskus shopping centre in Helsinki from property company Sponda for €322m at a net initial yield of 7%. The purchase was financed by the issue to the seller of €130.7m of new shares (at net asset value) and the balance by debt. This was followed in February by the sale to Hammerson of the Parinor shopping centre, north of Paris, for €148.5m, showing a premium over book value of 15%. The centre was built in the 1970s and its sale fits in with the fund’s policy of disposing of older properties. Following these transactions, the share of retail in the investment portfolio has risen from 28% at the end of last year to around 37%. Offices are the fund’s mainstay, accounting for 51%, and the remaining 12% is in distribution and residential property. The position of the eurozone as its main investment market has been reinforced – it now accounts for around 58% of investments, with the balance mainly in the US and UK. Further acquisitions apart, the investment portfolio is set to grow as new developments are finished. Completed but not fully let developments and ones still being built had a total investment value of around €225m at the year end. All developments are distribution and office properties and most will be added to the investment portfolio this year. The largest investment is a 22,000m2 partly prelet office development in Clichy. In Belgium – where the firm’s interests are held through a 68.2% stake in a separately quoted fund – Wereldhave is involved in phased office developments in Antwerp and Brussels, as well as in a 21,700m2 distribution property in Meer. In Spain, it has prelet a 36,800m2 industrial property near Madrid at Rivas. In the UK, Wereldhave has withdrawn from long-standing plans for a shopping centre in Folkestone. Wereldhave Nassaulaan 23 2514 JTDen Haag Tel 31 70 346 9325 Fax 31 70 363 8990 www.wereldhave.com Financial highlights Slow but steady income return is the strategy Key figures (€m) 2001 2000 Property investments 1,873 1,776 Total assets 1,933 1,860 Equity 1,130 1,088 Net income return 97.1 86.0 Capital return 17.8 140.1 Source: Wereldhave