Socimi Lar España achieved total revenues of €95 million in 2023, up 14% from €83.6 million in 2022. Recurring net profit, discounting the accounting effect of valuations, was €77.2 million, an increase of 91.6% compared to €40.3 million in the previous year.
The company's board proposed to the AGM a dividend of €0.79/share, totalling 66.2 million euros, equivalent to a per share yield of 12.9% on last year's year-end capitalisation. The ordinary dividend will be 58.7 million euros, the highest in the history of Lar España, increased by 7.5 million euros from divestments made last year. If approved, since its inception in 2014, the socimi will have distributed a total of 391.2 million euros in dividends. The company experienced a stock market revaluation of 45.6% last year.
During the presentation to analysts and investors, it was indicated that the increase in revenues and recurring profit is due to the strength of operating results, the management of its main assets and the solidity of its balance sheet, evidenced by a net debt of 31% and the reconfirmation of the BBB stable rating by Fitch. Liquidity at the end of 2023 was €245 million, earmarked for future investments and dividend payments.
Shopping centres and retail parks
Revenues reported by the company's more than 1,000 tenants amounted to €1,058 million in 2023, 8% higher than the previous year. Lar España's 12 shopping centres and retail parks received 76.2 million visitors, an increase of 3.7% over 2022, and occupancy rose to 97.1%, fifty basis points higher than the previous year.
Total revenues increased by 14% in 2023, even excluding the revenues from Rivas Futura and Vistahermosa, sold on 28 July 2023 for €129.1 million, representing a 24% revaluation on their acquisition price. Excluding the revenues from these two parks from August to December 2023, the increase would have been 16.3%.
José Luis del Valle, chairman of the board of directors of Lar España, commented that the 2023 results strengthen the company's position for the next real estate cycle, in which retail is expected to be an attractive segment. According to his words, excluding the accounting effect of changes in valuations, recurring net profit has shown a clear growth from €27.1m in 2021 to €77.2m last year. In addition, he mentioned that financial strength could allow profitability to be maintained through a record ordinary dividend, coupled with the extraordinary from the sales of two retail parks, in line with the policy of rotating mature assets.
Lar España's total net profit, including the accounting effect of the revaluation of its assets, was EUR 36.8 million. The latest independent valuation of the company's assets, carried out at 31 December by JLL and Cushman & Wakefield, was EUR 1,313 million, 1.8% less than in the previous half-year. In the ten years of activity on the stock exchange, the socimi has achieved an average revaluation of 54% over the acquisition price of its assets.
The company renegotiated 179 rental transactions in the last year, covering a total of 42,326 square metres, with an average comparable growth of 9.1% indexed, totalling 11.4 million euros in rents renegotiated. The average tenant effort rate, including expenses, remained at 10.2% of total sales, one of the lowest in the sector, while the collection rate increased to 99%.
