Vonovia, Germany’s largest housing group, has now presented its 2023 figures. The Bochum-based company posted a record loss of 6.8 billion euros. Nevertheless, Vonovia actually wants to increase the dividend. After all, the loss is primarily a record valuation loss.
The bottom line is that Vonovia recorded the highest after-tax loss of all time in the past year 20234. After taxes there was a loss of around 6.8 billion euros, significantly worse than the loss of 669 million a year earlier. According to CEO Rolf Buch, this is primarily a “record loss in valuation”.
As with the competing companies that had already presented their figures in the previous week, the reason for the record loss is actually primarily the revaluation of real estate. The annual report shows a loss of 10.65 billion euros. In the previous year it was only -1.18 billion euros. Thanks to some modernizations in the portfolio, Vonovia has at least prevented an even greater devaluation.
According to Vonovia, this is a “pure valuation issue” due to accounting in accordance with the IAS 40 accounting standard. In operational terms, however, the group once again earned a significant increase of 1.8 billion euros. At around 2 billion euros, things went better here too in the previous year.
Rents rose by an average of 3.8 percent across the group at the end of December. Vonovia also wants to involve its shareholders in this. 90 cents per share are to be distributed for 2023. This means that the amount is even higher than the previous year’s figure of 85 cents. For the current year, Vonovia expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of 2.55 billion to 2.65 billion euros. In the previous year the result was 2.58 billion euros. The adjusted pre-tax profit is expected to be between 1.7 billion and 1.8 billion euros, slightly below the previous year’s figure.
The first analyst reactions are already there. According to the annual figures, the US bank JPMorgan has left Vonovia shares at “overweight” and the price target at 31 euros. According to analyst Neil Green, the real estate group has largely met market expectations. The announced dividend was above the consensus estimate. However, the group has a lot to explain about the key indicators and the new dividend policy.
Investors reacted sniffily to the housing group’s results in pre-market trading. The record loss even pushes the positive interest rate environment into the background, at least in the short term – especially since there are more doubts about rapid interest rate cuts. From a chart perspective, the focus is now on the support at 25.40 euros. If this breaks, the next major support awaits in the area of 24 euros. After that, the stop price of 22.50 euros could also be in danger.