Ciarán Hancock

Irish listed property company Green Reit will pay its first dividend next month. In half-year results published after the market had closed yesterday, the company indicated that it would pay shareholders a total dividend of €6.122 million or 0.92 cent* per share in cash next month.

The dividend relates to the year ended June 30th, 2014. Green said this would represent 85 per cent of the income from its property rental business for the period, as defined in Irish Reit legislation.

Green announced a pre-tax profit of €73.4 million for the six months to the end of December 2014, up from just €120,000 a year earlier.

The half-year results included its acquisition of the Sapphire Portfolio, which was purchased for €375 million. It was the company’s largest acquisition to date, and also the single biggest property transaction in the Irish market in 2014.

This deal added €23.3 million to the company’s annual passing rent, and included six properties and 649,000 square feet of high-quality real estate in Dublin.

The company’s total annual passing rent on its 24 properties at December 31st was €53 million, a year-on-year increase of €35.7 million. This was the result of its acquisitions. Its portfolio income yield was 6 per cent.

Rental income of €16.1 million was achieved in the six-month period, up from €1.7 million a year earlier. Green said this reflected the “stabilisation of the portfolio following a busy period of acquisitions”.

Its total property value more than doubled in the half-year to close at €882 million.

In terms of outlook, the company said it expects the current year to be another "strong" period for commercial real estate in Ireland, as the economy continues to recover and interest rates remain low.

"The company is in a strong position to take advantage of supply constraints in the Dublin office market, and through its debt headroom has the means to deliver new buildings on those sites earmarked for development and to acquire further properties that fit with the company's investment policy and which will be accretive to shareholder value," chairman Gary Kennedy said.

* This copy was edited on February 24th