This morning international shopping centre operator Westfield Corp Ltd (ASX: WFD) reported a profit of US$343 million on revenue of US$987.6 million for the six-month period ending June 30, 2017.
The group reports in U.S. dollars and will pay US12.75 cents per security for the period and reconfirmed guidance for a 2017 full-year dividend of US25.5 cents per security. On an FX-adjusted basis that represents an annual yield of 4.3% for Australian investors based on today's share price of $7.58.
Funds from operations per security logged in at US16.5 cents and the group reconfirmed guidance for 2017 full-year funds from operations of between US33.8 cents to US34 cents. On an FX-adjusted basis that equals roughly A$43.5 cents per share and places the group on around 17.4x forecasts for annual earnings.
Over the year Westfield's CEO commented that: "Annual specialty sales were up 2.2% on the prior year with Flagship portfolio specialty sales up 3.3% to $892psf. Comparable net operating income growth was 3.5% for the six months with the portfolio 93.9% leased as at June 30 2017."
Thanks to its defensive cash flows the group is able to carry significant debt and its gearing ratio (debt-to-equity) remains reasonable at 38.4%.
The group has a $9.8 billion development pipeline aimed at developing commercial or residential property in prime locations only across major international cities like London, Los Angeles and New York.
The strategy to focus on high-quality assets in major cities only is largely in response to the rise of online shopping and concerns that foot traffic may fall outside the world's most popular shopping locations.
Currently the group has US$32.2 billion in assets under management of which 83.3% are flagship assets. It has a founder-led management team that remains committed to its long-term goal of building the world's best shopping centres.
