PRESS RELEASE 25-10-2007
DORIC LOOKS BACK AT A SUCCESSFUL YEAR
Doric Asset Finance has recorded substantial growth in the company’s key investment markets - aircraft, ships, renewable energy and real estate. The highlights across different markets show Doric’s diverse product platform.
Aircraft leasing
In the transportation sector, Doric made a number of aircraft acquisitions for its funds, including aircraft on long-term leases to Emirates and Virgin Atlantic. More recently, two Airbus A330-200 have been arranged, which will be delivered to Air Mauritius in late 2007 and late 2009. Given Doric’s expertise in this sector, the company was appointed as the asset manager for several third party aircraft funds as well as for its own investments, resulting in a total of ten aircraft under management.
Doric’s long-term aircraft operating lease investments, including those structured by Doric and placed with third-party distributors, scored highly with rating agencies and the media: The Lloyd fund ‘Emmeline’ received a Cash Financial Advisor Award in October, and ‘Doric Flugzeugfonds’ was nominated for a Scope Award on the basis of its innovative concept, balanced risk management and attractive distributions.
Renewable energy
In 2006, the Doric Energy team and project partners undertook construction of the world’s largest bioenergy park in Penkun, Germany, consisting of 40 individual plants. With projected distributions rising from 5.5% to 11% in 2009, the long-term fund captures the strong growth of this market sector. After the success of the bioenergy park in Penkun, Doric will now launch a second closed end fund in the renewable energy sector (total volume of EUR 200m).
Real estate
Lion Plaza, Doric’s commercial property investment in the heart of the City has benefited from the continued growth of demand for Grade A office space. 99.7% of the property has now been let on long-term leases with an average remaining lease period of 18 years. Lion Plaza was purchased in November 2005, prior to the substantial price increases experienced in 2006/7, with long-term fixed rate debt, sheltering the GENO Lion Plaza fund from the recent market volatility and enhancing the annual cash income nature of the fund.
In fact, recent reports from Colliers CRE suggest further growth in prime office rental values in London. While rental growth in central London has slowed, the City of London is still performing well, with prime rents increasing by 12.5% in the first six months of 2007. The shortage of Grade A space in the City has seen prime rents in the City core rise to GBP 67.50 psf at the end of June 2007. And although sceptics fear that the amount of new development planned for the City of London will create an oversupply of office space in the next five years, it is worth noting that the recent credit crunch, as well as increasing commodity prices for steel and cement, may also impact on construction, particularly speculative construction, thereby slowing the availability of additional rental space. Colliers CRE saw no evidence that the recent credit squeeze this summer had affected rental values for the best office space. With continual growth in rental demand and falling vacancy rates restricting supply, carefully selected and expertly managed investments in real estate stand out as very attractive in comparison to volatile equity markets.
For Lion Plaza the success story continues, with rental growth likely to create yet more positive results when the upwards-only rent review process begins in 2010. Investors will thereby continue to see their investments outperform under Doric’s expert management.
Doric Asset Finance offers investments in real assets – including aircraft, ships, commercial real estate and renewable energy. The experience of the Doric team and their access to a wide network of international contacts form the basis for the conception of successful long-term investments. These are managed by specialist teams for each sector, monitoring the stability and efficiency of the investments. Doric now manages assets worth just under EUR 1bn.
Press Contact: Sarah Glienke, Press and Communication, Doric Asset Finance
Email: sarah.glienke@doricassetfinance.com | Tel: 020 7621 6515