Dear shareholders
As the newly appointed chairwoman of the supervisory board, I am genuinely proud to be able to look back with you on a particularly successful year, but also one marked by unpredictable circumstances and uncertainties in several areas.
First of all, I would like to thank #TeamIntervest for building up an organisation that has demonstrated its strength and agility. This team has succeeded in reorienting itself from the purchasing of leased buildings to realising real estate projects from land position to leased buildings at strategic locations to renowned tenants. In often difficult circumstances, the team has continued to work together with motivation in order to realise the #connect2022 strategy, paying constant attention to the changing needs of our tenants.
I thank all our stakeholders, tenants, partners, suppliers and financiers for their continued confidence in Intervest, resulting in, among other things, the renewal of a number of important lease contracts, the rise in the occupancy rate, the realisation of a number of strategic development projects and the further improvement of the financial structure.
Naturally, a word of thanks to the shareholders who helped support the #connect2022 strategy and the turnaround. The exercise of the optional dividend by a significant number of shareholders and the rise of the share over the past few months are, to me, important indicators of the confidence in the strategy and in the achievements of Intervest over the past year.
In June 2020, under the name #connect2022, Intervest outlined its strategy, based on four closely linked pillars: value creation, customer focus, sustainability and #TeamIntervest. Over the past year, Intervest has taken further steps in the implementation of this strategy, more specifically at the level of the further growth of the fair value of the real estate portfolio, in realising set of the sustainability objectives and in carrying out the (re)development of real estate projects, under own management, focused on sustainable value creation from the perspective of both investment and financing.
The strategy of Intervest is to invest in projects that create value, more specifically in two real estate segments whereby, at the end of 2021, logistics real estate represents 68% and offices 32% of the real estate portfolio.
This represents a 5% points increase in the share of logistics real estate compared to 2020, with 42% of the logistics real estate portfolio located in the Netherlands.
The real estate portfolio has a fair value of €1.209 million at the end of 2021. In addition to the real estate available for lease amounting to approximately €1.099 million, this total value also includes approximately €110 million of project developments and land reserves.
These project developments concern projects for which construction has already started, such as the redevelopment of the office building Greenhouse Collection at the Singel in Antwerp and the logistics (re)developments in Herentals (Herentals Green Logistics) and in Genk
(Genk Green Logistics).
The success of the Genk Green Logistics development project, a joint venture with Group Machiels, is demonstrated by the (pre-)leasing already of 35% of the available 250.000 m².
In addition to these already started project developments, Intervest also has strategically located land reserves in Puurs, Genk, Herentals, ’s-Hertogenbosch (NL) and Venlo (NL), available for future developments.
In both real estate segments a number of important rental transactions were realised, as a result of which the average duration of the lease agreements until the first expiry date of 4,0 years last year rose to 4,3 years for the total portfolio and from 4,8 years last year to 5,3 years for the logistics portfolio.
The driven approach in the rental policy also provides an increase in the occupancy rate compared to year-end 2020. For the total real estate portfolio the occupancy rate increases by 1% point to 94%. In the logistics portfolio, we note an increase of 4% points, leading to full occupancy at the end of 2021.
Intervest closes 2021 with EPRA earnings per share of € 1,74, an increase of 9% compared to 2020 and can propose a gross dividend of € 1,53 which is the same as for 2020. This represents a gross dividend yield of 5,4% (based on the closing price of 31 December 2021).
Building on its strategic achievements and the strategy outlined, Intervest looks to the future with confidence.
Intervest has more than 350.000 m² with a value of €425 million of projects under construction and future development potential, of which only € 135 million was already invested at the end of 2021.
The financing structure of Intervest was further fine-tuned in 2021 with the tightening of the average interest rate to 1,8%, sufficient available credit lines and no maturity date until 2023. The average remaining duration of the long-term credit lines rose to 4,1 years compared to 3,8 years at year-end 2020.
Looking ahead to 2022, Intervest expects to achieve EPRA earnings comparable with that of 2021 and also intends to propose a gross dividend per share of at least € 1,53.
Further growth of the EPRA earnings, based on the existing development potential and rooted in the value creation resulting from the project developments under own management, is expected to be fully realised as from 2023.
With me there is a team you can count on to lead Intervest on the road set out and to realise future growth. The confidence of you and our stakeholders is of particular importance as is the ongoing commitment of #TeamIntervest. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude and to thank everyone for this.
Ann Smolders
Chairwoman supervisory board