Fully agree with your comments Swap. In the Chairmans address to...

Fully agree with your comments Swap.

In the Chairmans address to shareholders on 27 November this year Paul Cooper said:

"CER IS DIFFERENT FROM CNP

In order to explain the 2008 loss and CER’s current situation, it is first necessary to provide the context of how CER generates income, and the links to Centro Properties Group, which I will refer to as “Centro”.

CER is quite different from Centro. CER is a listed property trust or REIT which derives its earnings from the ownership of its shopping centre assets. Earnings are directly based on the performance of the shopping
centres within the CER portfolio.

Up until recently, it made sense for CER and Centro to be closely linked. CER has historically achieved synergies and savings through operational and financial links
with Centro. Financing and hedging are good examples of this. By aggregating its entire portfolio of managed centres, Centro was traditionally able to source both financing and hedging cover at more attractive rates than CER would have been able to do on its own.

CER is in the process of reviewing its hedging positions with the objective of replacing Centro with rated external counterparties. ...... AND

... we have undertaken a number of steps toward ositioning CER for its future. This includes examining ways in which CER can become more independent of Centro. ... "


I think CER is suffering from the damage to the Centro brand, just as some Babcock satelites are suffering from their association with BNB.

Separation of CER from CNP (possible re-branding)and a hint of dividends should do wonders for the SP. More importantly, we could end up with a terrific investment to hold for the longer term.

CER management has a plan and yesterday's announcment was a very important milestone in implementing the plan.