GOODMAN Group chairman Ian Ferrier says the company is well positioned to weather another global financial crisis. Addressing the annual meeting in Sydney yesterday, Mr Ferrier said the company had undertaken significant capital management initiatives last year.
"Any (future) shock which may come, such as the GFC, would not impact on the company like it did the last time," he said.
He said that since 2009 the industrial property group had lengthened debt maturities to an average of 3.3 years, and now had $1.7 billion of available liquidity.
Mr Ferrier said it had been able to attract third-party capital to fund its development projects, raising about $2bn in the past year from capital partners.
The new partners included the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, CB Richard Ellis Realty Trust and China Investment Corporation. He said the group, which is one of the largest industrial property developers, owners and managers, had planned $10bn worth of development projects around the world, of which about $1.3bn worth were under way.
And the level of gearing at the group level was 24.9 per cent, down from almost 50 per cent.
Goodman Group had about $16.8bn of assets under management and $5.1bn of investments in core industrial assets either on its balance sheet or through its many associated funds.
Chief executive Greg Goodman said the volume of funds under management was predicted to grow strongly over the next 12 months. Goodman is currently doing due diligence on the $1.4bn ING Industrial Fund on behalf of a consortium.
Mr Goodman said customer confidence was returning and this was reflected in the higher leasing volumes being achieved.
He said the group was on track to achieve a minimum increase in full-year operating profit of $370 million to $380m.
With no contentious issue on the agenda, yesterday's meeting was a far cry from last year's noisy annual meeting, at which unit-holders raised questions about a proposal to buy an industrial asset from the Goodman family.
The company received almost 100 per cent approvals on three resolutions, including the adoption of its remuneration report.
According to a well-placed source, there was no re-election of existing directors and the company did not pay bonuses in the year.
Goodman's securities closed unchanged at 63.5c.
GMG Price at posting:
$3.20 Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
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