CA Immo has entered exclusive negotiations with a bidder for the Tower 185 office building in Frankfurt, one of Germany’s tallest office buildings.
Tower 185 was completed at the end of 2011 and is about 200m high. The property has a total lettable space of 100,000 m2 over 50 floors. PricewaterhouseCoopers is the anchor tenant in the building, which was about 80% let as of 31 December 2012.
CA Immo expects a successful closing of the deal in summer 2013.
A €270m financing facility associated with the building and provided by four banks matures in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Vienna-based CA Immo’s first quarter interim results show the company’s EBIT at €51.6m, representing an increase of 29% compared with €39.9m in the same period of 2012. Net income after minority interests increased by 17% to €20.3m. The firm’s overall result was positively affected by an improvement in financing costs and a number of one-off effects including revenue from the valuation of interest-rate hedges amounting to €5.8m and from the repurchase of liabilities amounting to €3m, said CA Immo.
The company’s revaluation result improved from -€19.6m in Q1 2012 to -€4.4m in the same period in 2013. About €1.5m of upward valuations were recorded in Germany while -€5.3m of devaluation was recorded in eastern Europe.
CA Immo completed the Tour Total project in the first quarter of 2013 and progressed on the Mercedes Benz VD and Intercity hotel, which among other factors positively affected the results.
The negative result in Eastern Europe was almost entirely owing to devaluations on two investment properties in the Czech Republic, said a company statement.
The firm’s rental income fell by -4.7% between Q1 2012 and the same period in 2013 to €69m.
“We are particularly pleased to note that the significant upturn in the first quarter has been based on a strengthening of the recurring earnings basis of CA Immo rather than any one-time influences. Raising our profitability and equity ratio will remain the top priority over the periods ahead. We will continue to strive to focus our portfolio on existing core regions and the offices asset class,” said CA Immo CEO Bruno Ettenauer.
“As regards the company’s single most important transaction in the months ahead – the (partial) sale of Tower 185 – we’re now entering, as planned, into exclusive negotiations with a bidder and expect a successful outcome to be confirmed during the summer.”
