VGP Trading Update

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Regulated Information

13 May 2022, 7:00am, Antwerp, Belgium: VGP NV (‘VGP’ or ‘the Group’), a European provider of high-quality logistics and semi-industrial real estate, today published a trading update for the first four months of 2022:

  • Continued strong operating performance
    • € 20.7 million signed and renewed lease agreements (versus € 12.5 million for 4M ‘21), bringing total annualized rental income to € 273.8 million
    • 1,402,000 m2 under construction (+34.7 y-o-y) representing € 91.7 million in additional annual rent once fully built and let (currently 83.1% pre-let)
    • The completed portfolio grew with 182,000 m2 to 34 million m2 (99.6% let)
  • 1.04 million m2 of new land positions bought and a further 3.49 million m2 committed subject to permits bringing the total land bank to 11.28 million m2 (+3.1% year-to-date)
  • A third closing with the Second Joint Venture with a transaction value of € 364 million (and gross proceeds of € 233 million) was realized in March 2022
    • Three more JV closings anticipated for 2022 representing more than € 1.0 billion
  • In January, VGP successfully issued € 1.0 billion in green bonds. Combined with cash proceeds from JV closings this resulted in a liquidity position of over € 900 million and € 200 million of undrawn committed credit facilities at the end of April 2022.
  • Further upscaling of the cash generating model through our own and jointly held portfolio
    • € 81 million of committed lease agreements to become effective in the next 12 months resulting in a total aggregate indexed effective rent of € 266.8 million at the end of this period (compared to the current committed leases of € 273.8 million)
  • In order to support Ukrainian refugees VGP has made a € 3 million contribution to UNHCR

VGP’s Chief Executive Officer, Jan Van Geet, said: “Year to date we have signed € 20.7 million of new or renewed leases, bringing total signed and committed leases to € 273.8 million and we remain optimistic on the demand side, at least for the short term in all of our parks across Europe –with occupation on a historic high in all markets where we are active. At the same time we have seen new developments affected by the rise of construction costs, however until now we have been able to mitigate this effect through higher rental prices but we might expect economic challenges ahead due to increased inflation, supply chain issues and geopolitical challenges.”

Jan Van Geet continued: “The European energy market is severely impacted by the crisis in Ukraine, with unprecedented volatility and very high prices. In order to support our tenants, VGP is working on diversifying available sources of energy supply, through the roll-out of renewables across our parks and exploring the possibility of installing geo thermic heating systems in all our new developments. Furthermore we have also decided to move away from gas sourced heating systems in our new buildings”

Jan Van Geet concluded: “I remain confident that our solid balance sheet, pre-let pipeline and upcoming closings with our JV partner Allianz Real Estate provide us with strong foundations for the future. I want to thank my team for their dedication, whilst our hearts go out to the extreme suffering of the Ukrainian people and to all of those affected by the war.”