Kiwi Property delivered a solid operating performance in the 2020 financial year, however the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant effect on the Company and our stakeholders. On this page, you can read about some of the highlights from our 2020 annual result and download documents from our annual reporting suite.
Listen to Clive Mackenzie, our Chief Executive Officer, discuss our 2020 annual result, the impact of COVID-19 on the business and the steps we’re taking to respond to the pandemic.
We delivered a solid operating performance during the 2020 financial year, with operating profit before tax climbing to $129.7m, underpinned by solid rental growth across asset classes. Operating profit before tax is a non-GAAP measure. Refer to the annual result presentation for definitions.
The decrease in the value of Kiwi Property’s investment assets caused a drag on the Company’s reported full year financial performance, turning an otherwise healthy operating result into a loss after tax of $186.7 million.
Rental growth increased 4.0% during the 2020 financial year, enabled by high quality assets and intensive asset management and leasing programme. Occupancy grew marginally to 99.5%, while the weighted average lease expire remained at a solid 4.9 years.
Net rental income grew 3.4% to $186.8m in the 2020 financial year. Rental income increased across all asset classes with office and mixed use the standouts at +7.3% and +5.0% respectively.
In the year to 29-Feb-20, we recorded $2.01 billion in total retail sales, $1.80 billion of which came from shopping centre assets. Specialty sales increased to $13,200, up from $12,800 the year prior.
Due to COVID-19, we have been unable to collect sales data for the month of Mar-20 and have therefore shown annual statistics for the year ended 29-Feb-20.
The widespread economic uncertainty caused by COVID-19 prompted valuers to soften their assumptions, resulting in a $290 million, or 8.5%, write-down in the fair value of the Company’s property portfolio. The portfolio was valued at $3.1 billion as at 31 March 2020.