John Dakin says he has had to make hard decisions. Photo / Martin Sykes
John Dakin is the chief executive of Goodman Property Trust, one of the country's biggest landlords. The trust has a $1.6 billion portfolio and 90ha of floorspace. It specialises in industrial real estate.
How has the credit crunch changed your world?
Pretty significant, if you look
at how our year has evolved. We pulled back on all speculative development that we were going to proceed with. That all got canned. Acquisitions we would ordinarily make didn't happen. We have far stricter development criteria: 100 per cent pre-leasing before we start. We also brought forward our bank refinancing, which was due at the end of 2009. We're well through that programme with that. We've sold a couple of assets and although we've always been active traders, this has been a way to raise capital and reallocate funds.
How serious is the current downturn in a historical context?
It's very serious in terms of the effects of the financial crisis on the whole economy, which is starting to be felt. And I guess where you want to be is at the quality end of the business spectrum, with good assets and quality customers. No one is unaffected. This is an extraordinary set of circumstances.
What helps you put it in perspective and stay positive?
Coaching the under-7 Gunners is pretty handy. That's a rugby team based at College Rifles near Meadowbank. I think these times are difficult in a business sense, and it's a challenge to navigate your way through it and to make the right decisions. You have to take the hard decisions in cancelling things, fine-tuning and change strategy. That's the challenge. I think to be successful through this, you have to be adaptable.
