Foreign exchange dents Blackrock

FOREIGN EXCHANGE movements knocked €1.8 million off the value of Blackrock International Land’s assets in the first six months of the year, the company said yesterday.

Blackrock reported that the overall value of its properties in Ireland, Britain and Europe increased by €9 million in the six months ended June 30th.

All the growth was accounted for by a €9 million increase in the value of its British portfolio.

However, the company said that a €10.6 million foreign exchange hit on loans denominated in sterling essentially wiped out the gain, leaving it with a loss of €1.8 million for the six-month period.

As a result, net assets per share dipped slightly to 25.07 cent at June 30th from 25.71 cent at the end of last December.

Blackrock acknowledged yesterday that the markets in which it operates have not functioned over the last six months, and the few deals that did take place were at prices which did not “appear to reflect fair value”.

As a result, the company said that it did not have reliable market evidence for the worth of its properties, nor did it commission independent valuations. It has no plans to sell any properties in the current conditions. Consequently, it said that the only way in which it could estimate the value of its assets was take their value as at the end of December, 2008, and “adjust” it for known and measurable changes, such as exchange rate movements.

The company said yesterday that net rental income from its tenants is holding up. It earned €6.9 million in the first half, compared with €7 million during the same period in 2008.

Blackrock’s joint venture partner in a number of ventures in Scotland, Applecross, was placed in receivership last year. As a result, the ventures in which it is involved are in administration, a form of corporate rescue used under British law.

The Irish company had already made full provision for this on December 31st, and said yesterday that there have been no further financial consequences.