Klepierre Profit Stagnates as Divestments Restrict Rental Growth

Klepierre SA (LI), the Paris-based shopping-center landlord 27 percent owned by Simon Property Group Inc., said first-half profit was little changed as disposals curbed rental income growth.

Pretax earnings excluding one-time charges, known as net current cash flow, increased to 1 euro a share from 99 cents a year earlier, the company said in a statement after the market closed yesterday. Klepierre, Europe’s second-largest publicly traded mall operator by market value, predicted a “slight” drop in the full-year figure after the company issued more shares in May.

Simon Property, based in Indianapolis, bought its stake in the French company from BNP Paribas SA in March. Klepierre said yesterday it’s on target to raise 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) from disposals by the end of 2013 after selling or agreeing to sell 520 million euros of real estate in the first half. The company manages or owns properties valued at about 16.4 billion euros.

Net asset value fell to 29.6 euros a share from 31.4 euros at the end of last year, according to yesterday’s statement. Rental income gained 3.2 percent to 486.1 million euros, Klepierre said. The company has dropped 5.2 percent in Paris trading in the past 12 months, cutting its market value to 5.2 billion euros.

To contact the reporters on this story: Simon Packard in Paris at packard@bloomberg.net; Andrew Blackman in Berlin at ablackman@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Blackman at ablackman@bloomberg.net.