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Mirvac Group (MGR) said that the company had earned 48% of its projected earnings in the first six months of the year, a strong result considering that traditionally earnings for the property group were skewed 40/60 to the latter half of the year.

In a presentation to Shaw Stockbroking last week, Mirvac said that construction activity would return to ‘normal’ levels by next year, with a forecast for high rental growth as purchasers other than first-home buyers return to the market.

Mirvac also forecast yields would increase as vacancy rates in the residential space move to under 3%.

Mirvac estimated that construction activity would increase in 2010 and in coming years as a 6-year downtrend in home building has led to a significant undersupply of homes.

At Australia’s current rate of population growth, Mirvac said that around 165,000 new dwellings were required each year. Since around 15% of new homes are built to replace existing dwellings, the real figure for new homes required is closer to between 180,000 to 190,000 annually, the group added.

Currently, Australia is building around 150,000 new homes per year, leaving a shortfall of around 40,000 homes each year.

Of further challenge for the market, and especially companies which source their staff from the general construction market, the Building Education Revolution was placing pressure on finding qualified builders and crowding out the wider housing market.

Meanwhile, Mirvac said Friday it had issued and priced $150 million in new domestic bond notes, as it rolls over expiring debt.

“The earnings impact of this debt issue is in line with expectation and accordingly our earnings guidance of 9.2 cents per stapled security for FY10 remains unchanged,” Mirvac CEO, Nick Collishaw said today.

Mirvac said it has around $200 million in cash in the bank, with gearing at around 23%.

On the earnings front for residential property, Mirvac said it was predicting the sale of 641 lots in FY11, bringing in around $566.9 million, with $383.4 million pre-sold, or around 66%.

In commercial property and office stock, Mirvac said the national vacancy rate was around 9.3%, with expectations of a peak around 10% to 11% in 2010, citing Jones Lang LaSalle figures.

The supply pipeline of new office space for Sydney and Melbourne was expected to be lower than for Brisbane and Perth, the company said.

At 1112 AEDT, Mirvac shares were down 2.5c to $1.47. This morning Macquarie downgraded the stock to underperform saying that the economic recovery was already priced in.

Charter Hall Retail REIT (CQR) announced the acquisition of a shopping centre located in Canberra and a bulky goods retail centre in Adelaide for a total of $69.8 million. The trust said the assets were acquired at an average yield of 9.5% before acquisition costs and would be funded through existing cash reserves and debt capacity following the success of capital management initiatives over the past 18 months.

Charter Hall expects the Manuka Terrace shopping centre and Mile End Homemaker Centre to be accretive to earnings in the first year following acquisition.

CEO, Steven Sewell, said the acquisition is consistent with the trust’s strategy to increase its exposure to the Australian market and also to widen its investment mandate to include a minor proportion of assets in the bulky goods retail class.

“These assets will complement the trust’s existing portfolio of high quality predominantly grocery-anchored shopping centres, providing strong growth prospects for the future,” Mr Sewell said.

“The assets are expected to contribute to future earnings growth for the trust and assist in bridging the gap between the trust’s current unit price and net tangible assets of $0.72.

Mr Sewell added that following settlement of the transaction, which is expected by 31 March 2010, the trust’s weighting to the Australian and New Zealand markets would increase to 57%.

“This portfolio continues to perform well, having delivered strong same property NOI growth of 5.2% in the six months to December 2009,” Mr Sewell said.

As at 1101 AEDT, Charter Hall Retail shares were up 0.5c to 59.5c.

Lend Lease Group (LLC) said it has successfully raised $434 million from the institutional component of its fully underwritten equity raising announced last Thursday. Existing shareholders subscribed for over 87% of their entitlements available under the Institutional Entitlement Offer.

The second part of the equity raising, for retail investors, will open on Wednesday, March 3 and close at 5pm (AEDT) on Wednesday, March 24, the property group said.

The second part is intended to raise $305 million, with a total equity raising intended to be around $806 million.

At 1058 AEDT, Lend Lease shares were around 18c, or 1.9% higher to $9.52.

Goodman Group (GMG) reported an operating profit of $139 million for the six months to 31 December 2009, however swung to a $500 million loss on unrealised writedowns in property values. The company’s loss has widened from the previous corresponding period’s loss of $465.9 million, despite the broader economy’s emergence from the global economic crisis.

However, CEO Greg Goodman said that it appears writedowns have now stabilised.

”Goodman reaffirms its full year guidance for an estimated operating profit after tax of $310 million, equating to operating EPS of 5.7 cents,” Mr Goodman said.

Commenting on today’s result, Mr Goodman said the result was in line guidance offered as far back as last August.

”The half year has been a transition period, punctuated by the significant recapitalisation of the Group and our managed funds, together with relationships forged with two key strategic investors, CIC and CPPIB,” Mr Goodman said

”We have refocused on our core business during this transition period, while observing our markets closely across Asia Pacific and Europe for opportunities and signs of further recovery.”

Mr Goodman added that operationally the company has been building momentum over the first half of FY10 and this has continued into the second half.

Looking at the results for the last six months, revenue and other income fell to $192 million loss, against a $33.7 million advantage for the group in the previous corresponding period.

The company’s total assets, meanwhile, was down 18.1% to $7.9 billion from the previous corresponding period.

On a more positive note, total liabilities fell to nearly $3 billion to just over $5 billion at the end of December 2008.

The Group’s operations delivered operating EBIT of $180.1 million. The earnings composition was in line with expectations and reflects a low contribution from developments during thetransition period.

Investments contributed 88%, with 2% from developments and 10% from management services, the company said.

The property group said it would pay a distribution of 1.5c per security, while forecasting a full year payment of 3.4c for each security.

At the open Wednesday, Goodman Group shares were trading down 1.5c, or 2.5% to 58c. 

Macquarie CountryWide Trust (MCW) reported a statutory profit of $64.8 million for the six months to 31 December 2009, after a loss of $714.1 million in the previous corresponding period. The result came on the back of an increase in revenue to just under $100 million, up from negative revenue last year.

The group said $18.8 million of the profit came from fair value adjustments of derivative financial instruments.

CEO, Steven Sewell, said the company had successfully achieved its key objectives over the past 12 months.

”The Trust is now well positioned with a strong balance sheet, substantial liquidity and minimal debt maturities over the next two years,” Mr Sewell said.

“We will continue to focus on increasing occupancy and income growth from our portfolio of high quality assets with the aim of maximising returns for our unitholders."

In the last few weeks, Macquarie Group has announced the sale of the management rights to the company to Charter Hall Group.

Mr Sewell said he, and his leadership team, were committed to transferring to Charter Hall Group.

In the last six months, the Trust also said it had sold down an extra 15% interest in its US portfolio, allowing the Trust to exit 80% of its US investments ahead of schedule.

This allowed gearing to reduce from 37.9% to 36.2%.

Meanwhile, the Trust said occupancy rates were 96.8% over the half.

Macquarie CountryWide did say that it was not looking to sell any more assets, with a focus on driving revenue from its existing portfolio.

“Over the medium-term, we will look to build and grow the portfolio of assets in the Australian and New Zealand markets. This includes a widening of the investment mandate of the Trust to include a small proportion of assets anchored by long-lease, strong retailers that aren’t just grocery-based, but which have equal or stronger growth prospects.” Mr Sewell said.

”Financial year 2010 core earnings are forecast to be approximately 6.5c per unit, with distributions for the full year to 30 June 2010 to reflect a payout ratio in the range of 75% to85%,” Mr Sewell added.

At 1113 AEDT, MCW shares were down 1c to 57c.

Westfield Group (WDC) reported an improved full-year loss of $458 million as the company was impacted by downward property revaluations of $3.5 billion, which were primarily experienced in the first half of the year. Australia’s largest property trust said posted a 6.2% increase in operational earnings to $2.06 billion compared to the previous year.

In 2008, the group reported a loss of $2.2 billion.

Westfield managing directors, Peter Lowy and Steven Lowy, said the group was able to meet its forecast provided in February last year.

”Overall, we have seen strong performance from the Australian business throughout the year and conditions have stabilised in the second half of the year in our United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand businesses,” they said.

Looking at other results, Westfield said, on a hedged basis, operational earnings and distribution for the year were $2.11 billion, representing 94c per share, which was consistent with the group’s full year forecast.

The group said comparable shopping centre net operating income for the portfolio grew by 1.6% for the year as a 5.9% growth in the Australian and New Zealand portfolios outweighed 3.9% and 4.2% declines the United States and United Kingdom portfolio’s respectively.

Westfield said its gearing ratio at 31 December 2009 was 35.8% and available liquidity was $7.8 billion.

Steven Lowy said Westfield’s development activity remains concentrated in the Sydney CBD and Stratford in London, with the two projects expected to create significant long term value for the group.

“Excellent progress continues with over 50% of the area of each project now either leased or committed,” Mr Lowy said.

“Redevelopment remains a major component of our long term value creation activity and we will continue to invest in the predevelopment of our high quality opportunities in order to be in a position to commence these projects when market conditions are appropriate.”

He added that the group plans to commence $300 million of Australian projects in the second half of 2010 in addition to the new $350 million office tower at Sydney City.

In August last year the Group announced a change to its distribution payout level to between 70% – 75% of operational earnings, with the change effective from the beginning of the current calendar year.

Westfield said assuming no material change in economic conditions, it expects to pay a distribution of 64c per share.

“The change in the distribution payout level will enable the Group to retain approximately $500 million per annum,” Peter Lowy said.

”This will be deployed in the Group’s future investment activities including strategic developments, which have target long term investment returns of between 12% – 15%, and any acquisition opportunities.”

At the close of trade Tuesday, Westfield shares were trading at $11.92.

Mirvac Group (MGR) has bounced back from the global financial crisis with a profit to $47.2 million for the six months to 31 December 2009, up from a loss of $645.7 million in the prior corresponding period. It was a result that pleased investors with the share price rallying 3c, or 2.1% to $1.455 just before 11am.

Looking ahead, managing director Nick Collishaw said the company was focusing on large-scale, pre-eminent residential developments with the aim of ensuring it is well positioned to take advantage of opportunities in the future.

“Today’s results demonstrate that we are well positioned to deliver our earnings guidance and that we are expanding our residential and commercial development activities,” Mr Collishaw added.

Despite the strong result the profit is well down from the result for the last six months of CY07, where profit for the property group came in at $388.4 million.

Looking at the results, revenue climbed 12% to just over $900 million on the back of stronger rental receipts, while operating profit was 59% higher at $129 million.

Mirvac’s Investment Division, which is made up of Mirvac Property Trust and MREIT, said it had achieved pre-tax profit of $150 million, and operating EBIT of $136.1 million.

The division had a total portfolio value of $4.4 billion, with investments in 74 investment grade properties, Mirvac said.

“MPT’s results continue to underpin the group’s earnings and this has been further strengthened by the successful acquisition of MREIT, a $915 million diversified Australian portfolio,” Mr Collishaw added.

Elsewhere, the company said it achieved strong residential sales momentum, with 972 lot settlements, up from 562 lot settlements

The board declared a half year distribution of 4c per stapled security, down from 7.8c per stapled security in the previous corresponding period.

CFS Retail Property Trust (CFX) delivered a profit of $93 million for the six months to 31 December 2009, compared to a loss of $225.7 million for the previous corresponding period. The company said the result reflected solid net property income growth and the lower impact from property and financial derivatives revaluations.

The trust said it remains cautious about the period ahead and retained its conservative forecast expectation of sales growth across the CFX portfolio of 3% for the next 12 months.

Fund Manager of CFX, Michael Gorman, said CFX anticipates that the trust’s current development workload would increase in size over CY10 with the commencement of some of the development projects that had previously been deferred.

CFX said assuming there is no unforeseen material deterioration in economic conditions, it remains confident of achieving the distribution projection of 12.5c per unit for the year ending 30 June 2010.

“CFX is well positioned with a strong balance sheet that provides the capacity to take advantage of acquisition opportunities that may emerge in the Australian market,” Head of Property for Colonial First State Global Asset Management, Darren Steinberg, said.

“Given the recovery in the financial and credit markets, potential acquisitions are likely to be competitively bid.”

CFX reported distributable income for the six months to 31 December 2009 was $154 million, compared to $147 million for the previous corresponding period.

The trust said this comprised a profit of $93 million and a total transfer from reserves equalling $61 million.

CFX said underlying the result was a 4.4% increase in net property income to $223.7 million, while on a like-for-like basis, net property income increased by 2.4%.

The trust paid a distribution of 6.2c per share, which it said was is in line with the distribution paid for the pcp.

At the close Monday, CFS Retail Property Trust shares were trading at $1.87.

Charter Hall Group (CHC) announced the successful completion of the institutional component of its $220 million equity raising. Last week the company announced it would tap the market in an effort to fund the acquisition of the management rights of Macquarie Group Limited’s (MQG) core real estate management platform.

Charter Hall said it would raise about $145 million under the Institutional Entitlement Offer at 65c per new share and $25 million at 70c per new share under the Institutional Placement.

Chairman, Kerry Roxburgh, said the company was pleased with the strong support the offer received from existing shareholders.

Charter Hall said retail shareholders would have the opportunity to participate in the Retail Entitlement Offer at the same offer price and ratio as under the Institutional Entitlement Offer of two CHC shares for every five held at close of trade on 16 February 2010.

The company said the retail component opens on Thursday, 18 February 2010 and is expected to close on Friday, 5 March 2010.

As at 1137 AEDT, Charter Hall shares were down 1.5c to 71c.

Charter Hall Group (CHC), this morning, confirmed media speculation saying that it would buy Macquarie Group’s core real estate management platform for a total of $315 million. The property group said the acquisition would be, in part, funded by a $220 million capital raising.

A further $85 million would come via a share placement of 70c per security to Macquarie.

Charter Hall said it would acquire the management business associated with two listed and three unlisted real estate funds for $108 million and the majority of Macquarie's holding in three of these funds for $189 million.

Commenting on the acquisition, Charter Hall’s chairman, Kerry Roxburgh, said it was a good fit for the company.

“We are very excited about the acquisition and believe that the platform represents a strong strategic fit with our existing business,” Ms Roxburgh said.

”This acquisition is expected to be earnings accretive in FY11 and provides an excellent basis to grow and develop Charter Hall.”

Charter Hall said it was forecast to deliver FY11 underlying EPS accretion of 18% and a 27% uplift over FY10 Charter Hall standalone EPS of 3.95c per security.

At the close Thursday, Charter Hall Group shares were trading at 75.5c each.