G-REIT candidate Hamborner 1Q09 income rise, but fall in net

Hamburg-based property group Hamborner, which plans to convert to REIT status at the start of 2010, posted an 11% rise in rental income in first quarter to e5.8m, but group net consolidated result at a lower 1.4m after e2.1m in 1Q08. Hamborner is 53% owned by HSH Real Estate, part of the HSH savings bank group which is struggling under severe balance sheet pressure due to the crisis. The institution, in which US financier J.C. Flowers became the first-ever individual private investor in a German savings bank two years ago, will probably be merged with other peers as part of a plan given the green light recently by German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück. Flowers has been in intense talks with Berlin in recent weeks over his holding in the collapsed Hypo Real Estate. At the end of 2008, Hamborner managed e273m in real estate assets, focusing mainly on shopping centres in 1A locations in medium-sized German cities, as well as office property throughout the nation. It declared net profit of e17.3m, down dramatically from e52.2m in 2007, but a rise in annual rental income to e19.3m from e13.2m. Full story to appear in PFE 121 published on 18 May)