LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - AIM-quoted property company Secure Property Development & Investment disposed of nine of its residential units in Romania and Bulgaria for a total gross consideration of just less than €1m, as the company looked to continue upon its strategy of disposing of non-core assets and focus on growing its real estate portfolio in high-yielding countries such as Romania and Greece. ‎
SPDI sold the properties for a combined €980,000, with the proceeds to be used to reduce the company's residential property asset debt by €700,000 to €11.5m, at the same time as generating free cash of around €280,000.

SPDI, with its core property asset portfolio of South-Eastern European commercial and industrial real estate, still owns 110 residential units in the "fast-growing economies of Bucharest and Sofia", but noted that it intended to sell all of its residential holdings.

The firm said, the sales contracts, all of which were signed within the first two months of 2018, coupled with sales prices moving ahead roughly 10-15% higher in the Romanian cities than those seen for similar residential units sold in 2017, "demonstrate the buoyancy of the residential markets".

Lambros Anagnostopoulos, chief executive officer, said, "The growth of the Romanian economy, the fastest in the EU over the last few years, has generated a positive environment for the sales of SPDI's residential property in Bucharest, as evidenced by the recent pick-up of both the sales momentum and price levels, so we look forward to continuing to see an increased turnover of our residential portfolio at the higher prices we are experiencing."

"We hope the market realises soon that the substantial discount at which our shares trade to NAV is unwarranted," he concluded.

As of 0920 GMT, shares had retreated 13.04% to 10.00p.

Email this article to a friend

or share it with one of these popular networks:

• DIGG
• FACEBOOK
• STUMBLEUPON
• MIXX
• YAHOO BUZZ
• DELICIOUS
• REDDIT
• NEWSVINE