WARSAW, March 23 (Reuters) – Warsaw-listed real estate
developer GTC plans to sell 20-30 million euros
($22-33 million) of assets this year to cut debt and focus on
capital cities, after a drop in the value of its portfolio drove
it to a larger 2014 net loss.
GTC said on Monday its rental and service revenue was steady
at 110 million euros last year.
But 193 million euros of impairments and a devaluation of
assets in Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Hungary took its net
loss to 207.4 million — 17 percent larger than in 2013.
“Given the market developments, our strategy regarding these
non-core assets has changed from ‘hold to develop’ to a
‘disinvest at best possible price’ approach,” GTC said in a
letter to shareholders.
“Accordingly, we decided to market some of the non-core
assets and land bank, in order to release the tied-in capital
and deploy it in a more constructive way to support the further
growth.”
The devaluations also meant GTC breached some banking
agreements related to non-core assets. The company, 30-percent
owned by private equity firm Lone Star, said it was in talks
with lenders over the issue.
GTC, which focuses on commercial real estate, is present in
eight countries in eastern Europe and the Balkans. It has been
hit by Europe’s weak economy in recent years, which depressed
property prices across the region.
It now wants to focus on assets in Poland — its largest
market — and capital cities around central and southeastern
Europe.
“There’s a lot of real-estate activity going on in Poland
right now. From our point of view, it’s the second-best European
market to be at after Germany,” chief executive Thomas Kurzmann
told reporters.
The developer wants to keep its loan to asset value ratio at
54-55 percent, after it stood at 54 percent last year — 1
percentage point more than in 2013. Its 2014 net debt dropped by
13 percent to 698 million euros.
The CEO reiterated GTC planned to hold a long-flagged rights
issue in the first half of 2015.
($1 = 0.9180 euros)
(Reporting by Adrian Krajewski; Editing by Mark Potter)