Today the Board of Directors of IGD -Immobiliare Grande Distribuzione SIIQ S.p.A. (“IGD”or the “Company”), one of the main players in Italy’s retail real estate market and listed on the STAR segment of the Italian Stock Exchange examined and approved the Consolidated Interim Management Statement at 30 September 2015 during a meeting chaired by Gilberto Coffari.

“We have achieved very satisfying results in these past nine months, posting further improvement in the key financial performance indicators” Claudio Albertini, IGD – Immobiliare Grande Distribuzione SIIQ S.p.A.’s Chief Executive Officer stated. “The recovery in consumption appears to be stabilizing and we are reporting our seventh consecutive quarter of growth in tenant sales, as well as in the traffic at our shopping centers.  We are proceeding with the execution of our 2015-2018 Business Plan as forecast which is allowing us to strengthen our role as a key player in Italy’s retail real estate market.  At the same time, we are also carefully monitoring the Italian real estate market and are ready to take advantage of any further development opportunities that might materialize in order to continue along our growth path”.

Principal consolidated results at 30 September 2015

The shopping centers continued to perform well in the first nine months of 2015 with retailers’ sales at Italian shopping centers rising 7.3% (including the extensions, the seventh consecutive quarter of growth) and footfalls rising 1.3% versus a 0.2% drop on a national level based on the Italian Council of Shopping Center’s latest statistics; in Romania, footfalls increased (+1.7%) due also to a decrease in the construction work underway.

The financial occupancy in Italy was unchanged against June 2015 at 96.2% (average for malls and hyper), while it improved noticeably in Romania (92.3% versus 88.9% at 30/06/2015).

Core business revenue reached €93.8 million, an increase of 4.3% against the same period of the prior year.

Core business rental income rose 4.7% against the same period 2014 to €90.0 million; the change is explained primarily by:

• for €4.8 million, the new openings made in 2014 like the Centro d’Abruzzo extension, the first retail spaces at Piazza Mazzini in Livorno, the reformatted Le Porte di Napoli center, the inauguration of Clodì Retail Park in May 2015 and the acquisition of a portfolio of core real estate assets in October 2014 post-capital increase;
• like-for-like revenue in Italy which, net of the strategic or planned vacancies, was largely unchanged for both hypermarkets and malls:
• for -€821 thousand, by like-for-like strategic vacancies (vacant space which has already been pre-let, but where new layouts are being completed), sale of the City Center property on via Rizzoli at the end of May 2015 and other minor changes;
• for €332 thousand by an increase in like-for-like revenue in Romania (+5.5%) linked to the pre-letting carried out in the period (average upside +0.3%). The vacancies needed to proceed with the investment plan and other changes caused revenue to fall by-€317 thousand

As for the Porta a Mare project, the income generated by the rental of offices at Palazzo Orlando reached €248 thousand, while revenue from trading (relating to the sale of five residential units, 5 garages and 1 parking place) amounted to €1.6 million.

Core business Ebitda amounted to €63.4 million, an increase of 6.8% against 30 September 2014, while total Ebitda rose 6.9% to €63.2 million.

The core business Ebitda Margin came to 67.6%, while the Ebitda Margin for freehold properties reached 77.6%.

Ebit came to €60.3 million, an increase of 37.8% against the same period 2014, due primarily to a drop in writedowns and negative fair value adjustments.

Net financial expense fell considerably against 30 September 2014, coming in at €30.2 million (-€4.6 million) and the average cost of debt came to 3.79% (vs. 3.88% at June 2015).  The change is linked primarily to the decrease in financial payables as a result of the capital increase completed year-end 2014 which made it possible to extinguish a few loans.  The use of short term credit lines fell, as did the spreads applied to both short term credit lines and refinanced mortgages, along with Euribor. The bond swap completed in April 2015 also helped to reduce financial expense.

The Group’s portion of net profit amounted to €30.4 million, a significant increase against the €7 million recorded in the same period 2014.

Funds from Operations (FFO) rose 32.7% against the first nine months of 2014 to €33.4 million.

The IGD Group’s net financial position improved further against the prior year, reaching €931.4 million versus €937.9 million at 30 June 2015.  Capital structure ratios like the gearing ratio, which went from the 0.95 posted at 30 June 2015 to 0.94, and loan to value, which reached 47.9% against 48.3% at 30 June 2015, improved slightly.