Greg Clarke‚ chairman of Redefine International‚ says, “The company has made good progress during the period‚ with GBP47.5m of legacy financing facilities having been restructured or repaid‚ significantly reducing both leverage and near-term refinancing requirements.” Clarke said the company was pleased to have been able to take advantage of some market opportunities to make acquisitions of high-quality‚ income-yielding assets. Redefine said these actions‚ together with the previously announced intention to raise capital‚ would result in a significantly strengthened balance sheet and reduction in exposure to near-term debt maturities.

The company said it had undertaken a number of transactions since the interim reporting period to February 29 2012. These included the sale of a 96% shareholding in the Justice Centre in Halle‚ Germany‚ which reflected an 8.4% lift in the value of the investment and removed EUR37.1m of debt from the company’s balance sheet. Redefine also repaid the GBP17.15m Aviva‚ Delamere Place Crewe loan at a 36% discount and acquired a 50% interest in two German discount centres for a total EUR16.0m (GBP12.6m) as part of a joint venture with a major pension fund.

The investment market for UK regional offices remained subdued as concern over excess supply‚ government austerity measures and the availability of bank funding continued to affect demand for these types of assets.

Transactional activity and values had been negatively affected but Redefine remaines focused on maintaining occupancy levels and income across the portfolio. “Redefine’s exposure to UK regional offices is anticipated to reduce materially as a result of the negotiations on the Delta and Gamma financing facilities‚” Clarke said. He said overall occupancy reduced slightly to 93.6% (February 2012: 95.0%). A number of smaller asset management initiatives were in progress and shorter-term leases totalling 195‚000 square feet were under negotiation for extension or renewal.