We will continue to selectively recycle assets to ensure that we maintain our balance sheet strength and reinvest into higher returning opportunities.
Our portfolio of city-shaping projects are the cornerstone of the development pipeline which has grown to over USD15 billion, with the planning progressed at a number of these projects. The key projects in our development pipeline include: . Waterfront Brisbane, which is a major redevelopment of the Eagle Street Pier site and will make way fortwo office towers creating a vibrant retail and public space; . Central Place Sydney which is a large scale mixed-use development integrating a pedestrian and transportsolution above Central station; . Right next door is the Atlassian development which will push the boundaries of what the future ofworkplace looks like and how it works, adopting leading sustainability credentials; . The Pitt and Bridge precinct which is a significant future office tower development in the financial coreof the Sydney CBD; and . 60 Collins Street, Melbourne which will create a Premium grade office tower across the road from ourrecently completed development at 80 Collins Street
As we emerge from the pandemic, our customers are looking to invest in their workplaces to ensure they support their business success- and so having iconic projects in prime locations is going to be an important part of meeting their future demands.
Environmental, Social and Governance, or ESG principles, are integrated across our business operations and continue to grow in importance for our customers and investors.
We are focused on managing ESG risks and opportunities while progressing our Sustainability Approach. This slide shows our achievements across key areas of our business for the year and shortly we will show you a video covering this in more detail.
Recognising the urgency to act on climate change, we have brought forward our net zero emissions target from 2030 to 30 June 2022. Through this action, which is a key focus for a number of our investors and customers, Dexus estimates it will avoid a further one million tonnes of carbon emissions from our original target. This will be achieved through continued investment in energy efficiency initiatives, transitioning to renewables, and supported by nature-based carbon offsets.
We have an experienced management team that continues to deliver on strategy. They have demonstrated their ability to capitalise on opportunities while also being able to address challenges.
Before I move on, I would like to address the topic of remuneration. While the poll on the Remuneration Report has not yet been taken, based on the proxy votes already received for Resolution 1, we expect a substantial vote against it.
The remuneration decisions made by the Board in FY21 were focused on ensuring key Executives are retained and motivated, while recognising the importance of strengthening our senior leadership succession planning and maintaining stability within a highly competitive market for talented executives.
We are dealing with an uncertain and complex operating environment and refocusing our strategy to funds management to drive long-term security holder returns, reinforcing the rationale for our decisions to retain key members of our executive team.
Our decisions were not made in isolation. We sought views from our major Security holders as well as proxy advisers to ensure their feedback was incorporated into the final decisions and structure of the retention awards granted during the year. During this engagement process, many of those consulted were supportive of measures to retain key Executives.
We value the views of our Security holders and are committed to consult, listen and consider all feedback when making remuneration decisions in the year ahead.
From what you have heard in my address today, Dexus has performed well across all financial and non-financial areas throughout FY21, including its financial performance during the COVID-19 crisis and across key non-financial measures of culture, engagement, safety and diversity.
Looking forward, we are confident of being able to deliver long-term performance beyond the recovery, through our scale and capability across traditional and emerging real estate sectors, our funds management business which provides a capital efficient way to increase our exposure to growth sectors, and our substantial city-shaping development pipeline.
Based on current expectations relating to impacts from COVID-19 and barring unforeseen circumstances, we expect to deliver distribution per security growth of not less than 2% for the 12 months ended 30 June 2022.
CEO's address
Thanks Richard and good afternoon everyone.
Despite the current complex operating environment, we had an active quarter across our business, and it is encouraging that with increased vaccination rates there is a roadmap out of the continual lockdowns that Australia has experienced over the past 18 months.
Leasing continued over the first quarter of the year, with over 129,000 square metres of space leased across our office and industrial properties, which is a strong result in a lockdown environment.
We've maintained our focus on rent collections which resulted in 97.9% of rent being collected and were involved in USD1.6 billion of acquisitions which have supported the growth of our Funds Management business.
Looking at the performance of our USD17.5 billion property portfolio, and over the past few months we've seen leasing activity continue and enquiry volumes remain buoyant across our office portfolio.
Our portfolio occupancy remained high versus the market at 95.1% for office and 97.2% for industrial. Across both our office and industrial portfolios, the Weighted Average Lease Expiry has increased slightly.
As Richard mentioned, our customers use of office space will continue to evolve, as it has done over time. The office is a key driver for culture, collaboration and innovation and quality workspaces will remain in demand by companies seeking to differentiate themselves in order to attract talent.
Over the past quarter we have maintained momentum from a transactional perspective through the acquisition of a portfolio of quality industrial properties alongside Dexus Industria REIT for a combined acquisition price of USD1.5 billion, including Jandakot Airport and its associated industrial precinct in Perth.
These high-quality investments will further enhance the resilience of our property portfolio. The near-term development potential and scope to enhance returns by introducing third party capital is aligned with our priorities to grow our funds management business and recycle capital into high returning opportunities.
This transaction also provides the opportunity to achieve a step change in growth for the Dexus Industria REIT as it secures an interest in quality logistics-oriented real estate with embedded development potential.
We acquired a further healthcare property for Dexus Healthcare Property Fund and now have USD1.8 billion of healthcare real estate on the platform.
So, to conclude, we are well prepared to continue to deliver for our investors.
We have a high-quality real estate portfolio that continues to remain relevant to our customer base.
Our diversified funds business with long-term partnerships continues to attract capital, providing secure annuity-style income and co-investment opportunities.
And our significant development pipeline provides embedded growth for Dexus and our third party capital partners.
All of this is enabled by our quality people, scalable and efficient operating platform, and strong balance sheet.
Before passing back to Richard, I would like to thank my fellow Directors and the Dexus team for their commitment and contribution over the past 12 months, and you, our investors, for your continued support.
ENDS
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19-Oct-2021 CET/CEST The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Archive at www.dgap.de
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Language: English
Company: Dexus Finance Pty Limited
264 George Street
2193 Sydney
Australia
Phone: +61 2 9017 1100
Fax: +61 2 9017 1101
E-mail: ir@dexus.com
Internet: www.dexus.com
ISIN: XS1961891220
WKN: A2RZHG
Listed: Regulated Unofficial Market in Frankfurt
EQS News ID: 1241656
End of Announcement DGAP News Service
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 18, 2021 23:27 ET (03:27 GMT)
