Charter Hall FY19 1st Quarter Update

Charter Hall Group announced this week a strong start to FY19 with updated FUM, equity flow, transactions and leasing activity, along with the successful completion of the Folkestone Limited acquisition.
Key highlights:
Completed $205 million acquisition of Folkestone Limited, which comprises $1.6 billion of FUM
Combined with a further $1.4 billion of net acquisitions, FUM has grown to $26.4 billion
Increased portfolio of 779 properties across the office, industrial, retail and social infrastructure sectors comprising a weighted average lease expiry (WALE) of 7.7 years, occupancy of 97.9% and weighted average capitalisation rate (WACR) of 5.76%
156 leasing deals executed across 172,000sqm of space in the office, industrial and retail sectors
Total development pipeline of 37 office, industrial and retail projects with an on-completion value of $3.7 billion, de-risked through pre-leases and fixed price building contracts
Continued momentum in equity flows with $918 million gross equity raised across the Group YTD
$641 million in equity raised across wholesale pooled funds and partnerships. Strong equity flows driven by recent raisings in CPOF and CPIF
Direct Funds have continued to maintain their market leading status with a further $217 million raised across four open ended funds
CLW successfully complete a $60 million institutional placement in October
Property Investment Portfolio increased by 5.5% to $1.8 billion
Strategy and Outlook
Based on no material change of current market conditions and the completion of the Folkestone transaction, FY19 guidance is for 8-10% growth in post-tax operating earnings per security over FY18. The distribution payout ratio is expected to be between 85% and 95% of operating earnings per security post-tax.