Federation Centres (FDC) (nee Centro) was another company to join the higher payout club yesterday after reporting a very solid interim profit and lifting its forecast for the full year.
The result clearly indicates Federation has put the bad, debt ridden, backs to the wall days at Centro, well behind it.
Late last year it expanded its Sydney footprint by buying the Carlingford Court regional shopping centre in Sydney for $177 million in partnership with an unnamed Australian super fund.
Yesterday it lifted its full year guidance for 2013-14 to 16.7c to 17c earnings per security, from the previous guidance of 16.5c to 16.8c.
Federation will pay a first-half distribution of 7.5c a security, up 13.6% from 6.6c a security for the first half of 2012-13.
The property trust’s statutory profit for the 2014 first half has almost doubled to $226.7 million from $115.9 million.
Federation’s book profit was boosted by gains from property revaluations, a reversal of its stamp duty obligations flowing from the restructure in late 2011 and a fall in borrowing costs.
Underlying earnings rose 12% to $118.8 million.
FDC 1Y – Federation lifts 2013-14 outlook as its comeback accelerates
The company said that five projects outlined under the first stage of its $1.1 billion redevelopment program were successfully completed during the half year.
Federation said that work also commenced on the larger scale projects, with the $43.4 million Warnbro Centre redevelopment in Western Australia on track to open in late September 2014 and the $109.5 million redevelopment of Cranbourne Park underway with agreements signed for all major tenants and forecast to complete in 2015.
CEO Steven Sewell said in yesterday’s statement, “Strong operating results and increased earnings, combined with good progress on restructuring our funding arrangements, the redevelopment program and rebranding our portfolio are the key achievements during the first half of the 2014 financial year.
“The operating results continue to show our national portfolio is performing well. The portfolio’s weighting towards sub-regional and convenience centres, with a focus on non-discretionary spending, has delivered solid net operating income growth and stable occupancy levels.
"Although there are early signs that consumer confidence is improving, for the half year to December 2013 conditions remained challenging,” he said.
