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Listed industrial, retail and commercial landlord National Property Trust has pushed up its after-tax profit, and its new managers are taking credit.
Kevin Podmore, the trust's executive chairman and a director of Wellington-based financier St Laurence, which owns the trust's manager, said the result reflected a new direction.
"The manager's strategy is to focus on managing properties for yield and low-risk growth opportunities and to target capital expenditure projects that add value," Podmore said. "This is now beginning to yield results."
Last year, the trust was the only listed real estate vehicle to make a loss, reporting a $10.9 million deficit in the year to May 2006. Other listed real estate entities reported record profits and substantial increases in the values of their portfolio.
But the trust, which was established in 1994, wrote down the value of its portfolio after the new manager undertook an extensive review which examined the trust's financial structure, investment strategy and dividend distribution levels. The manager then announced "a strategic shift in direction which will see the trust focus more on lower-risk growth opportunities".
Podmore said the trust had raised $35 million in a convertible preference issue last year, liabilities had decreased and debt had been repaid.
The trust, which owns mainly shopping and office properties worth more than $250 million, was now looking to buy more properties, Podmore said. "The trust is currently considering a number of opportunities to expand the portfolio."
The portfolio was 97.9 per cent leased, he added.
The refurbished Village Rialto Cinemas in Auckland's Newmarket reported strong sales and rising shopper numbers, he said. The Goddards Centre in Tauranga was fully leased after its refurbishment.
The trust's other properties include a Christchurch industrial building, Christchurch shopping mall Eastgate, Dunedin's Hoyts multiplex cinema, the 18-level AA Centre on Auckland's Albert St and a 10-level Willis St office block in Wellington.
