The Swisscanto (CH) Real Estate Fund IFCA (ISIN: CH0037430946) again achieved a strong result in the first half of 2020. Net income rose by 17.4% year-on-year to CHF 18.6 million. The increase was achieved with a further reduction in the rental loss rate from 4.6% in mid-2019 to 3.9%. At the same time, the operating profit margin (EBIT margin) grew from 64.4% to 65.5% in a challenging market environment. The overall result of CHF 18.4 million (previous year: CHF 21.2 million) was down year-on-year, which is mainly due to last year’s tax-related special effects.
Over 90% of the fund’s income comes from classical residential use and the associated parking. Accordingly, the measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic did not have a significant direct effect on the fund. Current expectations are for a reduction in income for the entire financial year 2020 of around CHF 0.2 million, or around 0.3% of annual rental income, due to rent reductions. This drop in predicted income due to COVID-19 was taken into account in full in the half-year results for 2020. Around 25% of the effect can already be seen in the reported rental loss rate for the first half-year. Appropriate provisions have been made for the remaining 75%.
In view of the low impact of COVID-19 on the result, the fund aims to maintain its longstanding stable distribution in the financial year 2020.