IMMOFINANZ : Q&A on our share

We have recently received numerous questions from shareholders over the now completed takeover offer by the CPI Property Group for IMMOFINANZ and the significant negative reaction of our share during the past days. Here, you can find a summary of the most important data and facts.

First of all: IMMOFINANZ has an excellent and very solid position with its crisis-resistant portfolio and robust capital base. Our recently announced indicators for the first quarter of 2022 show the following: Like-for-like rental income rose by 4.3%, the occupancy rate was high at 94.4% and, EUR 34.4 million, FFO 1 before tax was stable at a very sound level. With an equity ratio of 52.3% and conservative debt with a net LTV of 32.7%, IMMOFINANZ has a strong capital base.

Takeover offer expired

The statutory extension period for the takeover offer by the CPI Property Group (CPIPG) to IMMOFINANZ shareholders ended on 30 May 2022. That means: Up to or shortly before that date, our share was more or less tied to the offered price of EUR 23.00 per share. As a result, the share price did not reflect the general market distortions surrounding the outbreak of the war in Ukraine or the growing uncertainty over interest rate increases, inflation etc. This mixture has been responsible for the weaker performance of real estate shares in comparison with other sectors over the past few months. As seen over the last half-year, the EPRA Nareit branch index (ex UK) lost roughly 20%, while indexes with a stronger concentration on the emerging markets (which include large parts of Eastern Europe according to the EPRA classification) fared even worse.

The settlement of the takeover offer: Many banks had set their own internal deadlines for settlement, e.g. 24 or 25 May - and, therefore, only accepted orders from their customers for the CPI offer up to that date. According to the CPI offer document, orders should be settled within ten stock market days after the offer expires. The money for the accepted orders should, therefore, generally be transferred by mid-June.

As last announced, CPIPG now holds roughly 77% of IMMOFINANZ. Our share's free float has, as a result, declined significantly - and this will also have an effect on the weighting in individual indexes. For example: Yesterday, on 7 June, following the regular meeting of its ATX committee, the Vienna Stock Exchange announced a reduction in the free float factor for the IMMOFINANZ share from 0.7 to 0.3 (which represents a rounded free float component of 23%). That reduces the company's weighting in the ATX and other Austrian indexes. This change will take effect on Monday, 20 June 2022. The next regular review of the ATX composition is scheduled for 6 September 2022.

Discussions with market participants indicate that they also have no conclusive explanations for the extremely negative reaction of our share on 7 Juni. It is possible that the share fell below several limits - set by automatic trading systems - during the afternoon, which triggered automatic selling orders, probably also the one or other larger order had to be settled. That would also explain today's positive reaction of the share price.