Goodman Group has reported an operating profit after tax of USD310m for the financial year ended 30 June 2010.

The fully diluted operating earnings per security was 5.25 cents, while the distribution per security was 3.4 cents.

Goodman made a statutory accounting loss of USD562.6m, approximately 90 per cent of which was incurred in the first half, reflecting property and equity investment revaluations and other non-operating items.

Balance sheet gearing is now at 24.9 per cent and the interest coverage ratio is 3.8x providing strong covenant headroom.

The group’s liquidity has increased to USD1.7bn, with all debt maturities covered to the first half of financial year 2013.

The forecast for the financial year 2011 operating profit after tax is within a range of USD370m to USD380m, which equates to fully diluted operating earnings per security of 5.3 to 5.5 cents.

Occupancy is at 93 per cent, up one per cent since December 2009 on a like for like basis, at a weighted average lease expiry of 5.5 years.

USD1.3bn of new third party equity has been raised from institutional investors across Goodman’s managed funds platform.

USD1.2bn of new developments have been commenced at an average yield on cost of 9.4 per cent, substantially pre-committed and matched to third party capital. 

Goodman group chief executive officer Greg Goodman says: “Today’s result highlights the operating momentum that has been building across our business during the year and has continued into FY2011, despite a challenging global environment. Importantly, we have completed a number of initiatives at the group level and in our managed funds during the year that have secured a strong platform for growth. This has ensured we are currently well positioned and, equally for when market conditions improve across our key markets.

“During the year we introduced a number of new global investor groups, Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, CB Richard Ellis Realty Trust and China Investment Corporation, which have enabled Goodman to realise a range of strategic opportunities. Our managed funds platform also continued to gain support from institutional fund investors with USD1.3bn of new third party equity raised for our Australian, UK, Continental Europe and China platforms.

“The reactivation of our USD10bn development pipeline has been undertaken on a prudent basis. We have commenced USD1.2bn of new projects during the year and these have been primarily matched with third party capital.”