Icade sees 7.5% fall in turnover, continues housing sales

French development and investment REIT Icade posted a 7.5% fall to e333m in consolidated turnover in the first quarter, compared to 1Q08. It said the solidity of investment, with a rise of 7.5%, partly compensated the 5.7% fall in development and an increase in intra-group eliminations, which is a consequence of the strength of the developer-REIT model. In commercial property Icade invests in office, business parks, public and healthcare amenities, shops and shopping centres, and boosted this by 22% to e60.4m at the end of March, reflecting a strategy implemented two years ago. However, turnover from residential property investment fell by 7.1% due to disposals so that commercial property now accounts for 57% of all investment revenues compared with 50% in 1Q08. Icade moved at that time to a strategy of extracting capital gains from its housing portfolio and using these to acquire immediate and anti-dilutive cash flows. At 31 March Icade owned 34,426 housing units, or 2m sq.m. of space, but turnover was 7.1% down on 1Q08, or 2.4% on a like-for-like basis. (Full story with PFE comment to appear in PFE 121 published on 18 May)