Highlights

• Record net profit of €370.9 million, an 80.4% y-o-y increase
• Signed and renewed rental income of €45.2 million, bringing total signed rental income to €185.2 million, a 19.5% y-o-y increase
• A record 33 buildings with 869,000 sqm under construction at year-end
• Landbank expanded to 7.65 million sqm – a 23.2% y-o-y increase
• A record 27 projects delivered with 531,000 sqm of lettable area, representing €29.1 million of annualised committed leases (entire completed portfolio is 98.5% let)
• Limited impact COVID-19: nearly all due payments received on time and very limited reprofiling

VGP’s Chief Executive Officer, Jan Van Geet, said: “The past year was transformative for VGP in many ways. Despite unforeseen challenges, we created an equity base growth from €700 million last year to €1.3 billion today as we outpaced many trends and significantly increased the number of mostly pre-let projects under construction driven by strong lease growth and enabled through cash recycling with four joint venture closings and two successful share placements. Looking ahead at 2021, we are seeing the same strong operating trends continue, leaving us convinced that this can also be a good year.

We have kicked off several iconic projects in the past year including our new parks in Laatzen (Hanover) and Bratislava. Furthermore, we have several milestone projects in the pipeline including VGP Park Moerdijk – the largest development project in The Netherlands – and more and more brownfield projects including in Giessen where we acquired a 32-hectare former US military airfield and in Wiesloch, Heidelberg, where 13 hectares will be redeveloped at the historic site of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.”

Results in details

• Signed and renewed rental income of €45.2 million driven by 625,000 sqm of new lease agreements signed (corresponding to €34.0 million of new annualised rental income), combined with 209,000 sqm of lease agreements renewed (corresponding to €11.3 million of annualised rental income.
• The new leases signed are geographically well spread: Germany €13.3 million (39%), the Netherlands €5.9 million (17%), Spain €3.9 million (12%), Slovakia €3.0 million (9%), Romania €2.4 million (7%) and the remainder in Italy, Czech Republic and Latvia (each 5%) and Hungary (1%).
• During 2020 VGP delivered a record 27 projects representing 531,000 sqm of lettable area, which equates to €29.1 million of annualised committed rental income.
• At year-end, VGP had a record 33 projects under construction or 869,000 sqm of future lettable area, which, once delivered and fully let, will generate €55.2 million of annualised committed rental income; the portfolio under construction at year-end was 79% pre-let.
• Rental collection has continued to progress well with rent collection since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic at 99.7% of the total rent billed.
• Acquisition of 2.57 million sqm of development land and a further 2.2 million sqm committed subject to permits which brings the total land bank (owned and committed) to 7.65 million sqm (a 23.2% net increase since December 2019), which supports 3.60 million sqm of future lettable area.

Outlook for 2021

• Development activities should continue to operate at elevated levels during 2021 supported by solid demand from potential tenants as VGP expects technological changes and e-commerce to continue to be an important driver for demand across its platform. The existing land bank provides the foundation for growth over the coming years and VGP expects to be able to continue expanding its rental income and property portfolio through the completion and start-up of new building projects in 2021.
• Focus on expansion of service offering through VGP Renewable Energy, through increased production of green energy and facilitating clients in their transitioning towards green energy.
• VGP expects in the course of 2021 to be able to announce the details of a further expansion of its first joint venture with Allianz Real Estate beyond the €2.0 billion expanded target and anticipates to be able to conduct several closings with the joint ventures in the course of this year.