Incase anyone missed it. put a nice spin on edt and post it in a positve light.
EDT Retail Trust stabilises its debts
FORMER Macquarie DDR Trust, renamed EDT Retail Trust in June, has come back from the brink as it continued to stabilise debts in 2009-10.
EDT chief executive Luke Petherbridge said the trust had restructured, repaid or refinanced $US460 million ($519.75m) of loans, and had raised $US127.2m from asset sales.
The trust, which raised $208m of capital, mostly underwritten by its new capital partner EPN Group giving it a 47 per cent stake, repaid $178m of debt and liabilities during the year.
Mr Petherbridge said the highlight of the year was to free the head trust of debt. Remaining debt was non-recourse, and secured on specific assets.
He said EDT was negotiating to replace a commercial mortgage-backed securities facility for $US143.1m with new five-year debt and expected to close the deal before the October maturity. Its next debt maturity is in June, when $US107m is due.
Gearing had dropped from 76.1 per cent in 2008-09 to 65.6 per cent in 2009-10, Mr Petherbridge said.
At June 30, EDT had 48 assets, valued at $1.7 billion and borrowing of $1.1bn.
Of its rental income, 60 per cent came from anchor tenants..
"We lease 1.3 million square feet (220,770sq m) of space, a record for us," he said.
Mr Petherbridge said about 22,297sq m had been contracted to retailers who would take up the space late this year or early next year.
EDT made a net loss of $3.4m, compared with a $616m loss in 2008-09 and asset depreciation had slowed to $5.1m compared with $781.5m in 2008-09.
Aston Reid, portfolio manager with institutional investor Legg Mason, said the capital raising had removed all debt at the corporate level and that the outlook for debt restructuring was more positive as credit was becoming available to the trust and occupancies in its shopping centres were improving.
EDT securities closed unchanged at 5.7c each
EDT Price at posting:
5.7¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
