Ashtrom Properties Ltd. (TASE:ASPR) and Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services Ltd. (TASE: HARL) are selling an office building in Germany. Ashtrom, controlled by the Ashtrom group and managed by CEO Yaron Rokman, today reported that it had jointly signed with Harel a contract to sell an office property in Hannover for NIS 162 million (€37.85 million).
The two companies acquired the property (Ashtrom owns 51% and Harel 49%) in 2010 for NIS 126 million. The buyer deposited €1.9 million in a trustee account when the contract was signed. The remainder will be paid when the agreement is completed (by June 30, 2019.
Completion of the agreement is contingent on a number of suspending conditions, as it usual with agreements of this type, including the recording of a warning for the property and obtaining a waiver from the Hannover municipality of its first refusal rights under German law.
Ashtrom will post a pre-tax profit of NIS 18.8 million (€4.4 million), and will obtain a €10 million (NIS 42.5 million) cash flow when the sale is completed.
Following the sale of the property in Hannover, Ashtrom will be left with 16 properties in Germany: seven fully owned and the rest in owned in partnerships.
Ashtrom works in income-producing real estate in Israel and overseas (currently in Germany), including shopping malls and centers, office and business buildings, industrial buildings, land, etc. designated mostly for rent.
Ashtrom's share price was down slightly yesterday, after having fallen slightly over the past year, pushing its market cap down to NIS 1.3 billion.
The company finished the third quarter of the year with NIS 59 million in revenue, 1.4% less than in the corresponding quarter last year, but its net profit was NIS 44 million 7% higher than in the third quarter of 2017. Ashtrom's revenue in the first nine months of the year totaled NIS 168 million, down 5.6%, compared with the corresponding period last year, and its net profit for the period was NIS 123 million, down 5.5%, compared with the corresponding period last year.
Rokman said, "We continue our regular activity to find income-producing properties with suitable upgrading potential for the composition of our portfolio of income-producing properties in Israel and overseas, such as the three office buildings in Germany acquired early this year."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 16, 2018
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