Deutsche Euroshop's earnings rise 34%

Hamburg Deutsche Euroshop AG, Germany's largest shopping centre owner, said full-year earnings rose 34 per cent as the company's malls generated more revenue.

Operating profit climbed to €165.7 million (Dh798.12 million) from €124 million a year earlier, the Hamburg based company said in a statement. Analysts expected €163.4 million, the average of nine estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Revenue rose 32 per cent to €190 million. Deutsche Euroshop, which owns or has stakes in 19 shopping centres in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Poland, plans to pay an unchanged dividend of €1.1 a share. The company reported net income of €93.4 million and restated the year-earlier figure to a loss of €7.8 million because of a change in the way it applies a tax deduction, according to the statement. The mall investor forecast an increase in operating profit to €177 million to €181 million for 2012, while revenue will rise to €207 million to €211 million.

"Last year, insurance companies and foreign pension funds were very active in the German shopping centre market," CEO Claus-Matthias Boege said in the statement.

"Contrary to expectations, the first ten weeks of the new financial year have been rather quiet."

The company reported net asset value of €27.65 a share for 2011, a 5 per cent increase from the previous year. Funds from operations, a measure of a company's ability to generate cash, rose to €1.61 a share from €1.35.