Hibernia REIT continues to eye up acquisitions

Property company Hibernia REIT has said it is seeing a high number of investment opportunities and expects to make further acquisitions in the coming months.

In an interim management statement issued ahead of its annual general meeting in Dublin, the company said it has cash of €110 million at the end of June while its €100 million revolving credit facility remains undrawn.

To date, about €600million has been invested or committed by Hibernia on acquisitions

The group said it has made significant progress on its development and refurbishment programme with fit-out of Block 3, Wyckham Point completed ahead of schedule, preparatory works ongoing at Windmill Lane and Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, contractors on site at Commerzbank House, and a preliminary planning approval received at Harcourt Square.

The investment group, which is headed by Kevin Nowlan, floated on the Dublin market in December 2013, raising €372 million from its initial public offering (IPO).

Last month it completed the acquisition of Dundrum View, an 80 unit apartment complex in Dundrum, South Dublin, for €28 million in an off-market transaction from CMP Investment Partnership. The property is fully let and generating net annual rent of €1.36million and a net initial yield of 4.7 per cent.

The group said that since year end, 14 units from its Dorville non-core portfolio have been sold or contracted to be sold for a total of €4.2 million. Terms are agreed for the sales of a further 25 units for an aggregate sum of €7.4 million. Hibernia said sales prices being achieved are about 20 per cent ahead of the carrying values and that it expects the remaining 26 non-core units, with a carrying value of €8.4 million, to be sold by the end of the year.

“We have made a good start to the financial year, with significant progress across our development and refurbishment projects: our residential scheme at Wyckham Point is now completed, well ahead of schedule, and we are on course to deliver significant new city centre office space in Dublin over the coming 36 months,” said Mr Nowlan.

“With strong tenant demand supported by a growing Irish economy and very low vacancy rates in central Dublin, the outlook is positive. We are particularly excited about our development projects in the South Docks, where we expect to be one of the first to deliver significant new space by the end of 2017,” he added.