Rising market boosts Kiwi earnings

The strength of the property market has pushed up earnings for listed landlord and developer Kiwi Income Property Trust.

Sean Wareing, chairman of Kiwi's manager, said the trust had an excellent half-year and would distribute a one-off $13 million windfall profit to unitholders during the next three years, after Kiwi's sale of its stake in Capital Properties.

Kiwi made $29.1 million in the six months to September, up on last year's $25.2 million.

Net rental revenue rose 6 per cent to $44.3 million and total assets increased $30 million to $1.2 billion.

A gross dividend of 9.10c is projected for the year, 5 per cent ahead of the previous year's dividend.

Also yesterday, ING Group dismissed speculation it is preparing to mount a takeover of Kiwi and that an NZX announcement that it had increased its stake from 9.65 per cent to 12.68 per cent was merely a consolidation of shares held by a Philadelphia-based division of ING.

The ING announcement follows Commonwealth Bank of Australia's move last Friday, when it paid $46 million to lift its stake in Kiwi to 11.5 per cent, which was interpreted by market observers as a blocking manoeuvre against any takeover.

Their view is that AMP Property Portfolio's bid for Capital Properties has shown the vulnerability of the listed property sector to moves by predators.

* ABN Amro Craigs released forecast gross dividend yields for the listed property sector in 2007 yesterday, ranking Kiwi last at 6.9 per cent and ING Property Trust first at 8.4 per cent.