* Sees sales on target of 280-300 mln euros
* Sees market recovery
* Nears three asset sale deals
* Plans to sell office fund assets
(Adds quotes, details, share price)
By Jan Korselt
PRAGUE, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Czech real estate firm Orco
Property Group <ORCO.PA> <> said it will reach its
full-year target of 280-300 million euros, including planned
sales of three properties by the end of the year, and sees a
pick-up in the market.
The firm, which was forced to restructure its debt earlier
this year after being hit by drop in the property market, plans
to announce the sale of three projects by the end of the year,
said Jean-Francois Ott, Orco's chief executive.
"We are not changing our target," Ott told Reuters in an
interview ahead of third-quarter results due after market close
on Thursday.
He said he saw a recovery in the market.
"It is completely different than a year and a half ago, when
we were thinking we would sell nothing, that the market would be
closed forever," he said.
"Now we rent, we sell, we actually see the situation being
less dramatic than we had thought. But the market is still
challenging."
Ott said bank financing remained tight, with banks requiring
around 50 and up to 60 percent equity participation of
developers, which led Orco to seek partners for its projects.
He said he expected the firm to have a 25-35 percent share
of its 400-450 million euro Leipziger Platz project in Berlin,
which it plans to develop together with Germany's High Gain
House Investments (HGHI).
Orco is also seeking partners for the development of its
270,000 square metre plot in downtown Prague, a former Bubny
railway yard.
He said the asset sales to be announced in the coming weeks
would be the Vysocanska Brana offices and Jeremiasova flats in
Prague, and the Szervita Square offices in Budapest.
Ott said Orco would also divest assets of its Endurance Fund
Office in the next 12-18 months, preferably as a whole, due to
pressure from investors.
The office sub-fund, larger of the two office sub-funds in
the Endurance Fund, has assets of 340 million euros. The fund is
highly leveraged, so the cash gain from the sale will not be
"huge", Ott said.
He said he saw positive market development in Russia next
year, allowing Orco to complete and sell its projects there,
probably in 2012.
Orco shares rose 3.7 percent on Wednesday to 181.5 crowns by
mid-afternoon, beating the wide PX <> index which gained 0.5
percent. Orco shares hit an all-time low of 70 crowns in March
last year, falling from record high of 3,785 in February 2007.
Ott said he saw no need to issue new stock in the
foreseeable future, having raised capital at an up to one third
discount to market price in April.
(Writing by Jan Lopatka; Editing by Louise Heavens)
