International Property News

Czech ECM FY net up 35 pct yr-on-yr

26th March 2008

Czech property developer ECM Real Estate Investments said net profit rose 35 pct year-on-year, boosted by revaluation gains and deferred taxes, while the group's closely watched NAV per share figure grew 10 pct to 57.4 eur, just below analysts' expectations.

Net profit grew to 25.6 mln eur in 2007 from 19.0 mln the year before, and was within the range of 21.9 mln-31.6 mln given by four analysts polled by Thomson Financial News.

The property developer also saw its total net asset value (NAV) grow 25 pct to 244 mln eur from 195 mln, while NAV per share rose 10 pct to 57.4 eur per share from 52.3 in 2006 after the issuing of more than half a million new shares last year.

Analysts had expected NAV per share to fall within a 58.4-62.1 eur range.

Revaluation gains jumped to 64.1 mln eur from 8.1 mln the year before, aided by the completion of the City Tower office building, the largest building in ECM's flagship City project in Prague.

'During the year we completed interesting and high-profile projects, confirmed our ability to turn our project pipeline into cash through profitable project exits and we proved that we are able to generate some excellent business opportunities in new markets and territories,' ECM's chairman Milan Janku said in a statement.

ECM already reported at the beginning of March that 2007 revenues grew to 50.1 mln eur from 17.5 mln, and earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) more than tripled to 30.0 mln eur from 9.4 mln.

Earlier this year, the developer also flagged that its 2007 net profit would come in higher than in 2006, when it was 18.8 mln, and 2005, when it reached 20.6 mln eur, and NAV would see total growth of more than 25 pct year-on-year.

'Figures came in roughly in-line, and there were no big surprises as most figures were already known,' said analyst Patrick Vyroubal of Atlantik FT brokerage.