Unibail Rodamco: Consistent Perfomance - Half-year results

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"In a world of uncertainty, decreasing consumer confidence,
increasing inflation and rising cost of capital, Unibail-Rodamco has
one of the strongest balance sheets in industry, inflation linked
income, secured borrowing costs and above all a unique portfolio of
large, high quality shopping centres, the most resilient real estate
investment category. I am glad to announce good first half results,
of ¤4.33 in Recurring Earnings Per Share (EPS), a 6.9% growth on H1
2007. We re-iterate our earnings outlook for the year of 7% growth or
more in Recurring EPS. Moreover, the uncertainty of the current
markets should continue to give us opportunities".
 
Guillaume Poitrinal - Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of 
the
Management Board
 
Business performance: The Group  is posting H1  2008 results in  line
with plans, with a 6.9% growth in recurring earnings per share.  This
performance comes on  the back of  continuing good like-for-like  net
rental income growth numbers (7.9% for the shopping centre  division,
11.1% for the offices and 4.6% for the C&E business, all  pro-forma),
and a limited impact of rising  interest costs (4.2% on average)  due
to the  Group's interest  rate  protection policy.  Leasing  activity
continues to be  driven by a  lack of prime  retail space  throughout
Europe and limited large office space in Paris. Vacancy rates are  at
historical  lows,   and  this   situation  is   unlikely  to   change
significantly due to  limited deliveries in  the coming period.  Some
retail tenants are faced  with slowing sales,  and are becoming  more
selective in  their expansion  policy.  Centres with  high  footfall,
offering a large variety of  shops and entertainment are clearly  the
top picks for retailers in the current environment. The Paris  office
market remains  tight,  and rental  levels  for new  leases  are  not
showing signs of  weakness. The Group's  vacant office space  dropped
significantly  over  H1,  to  5.4%.  The  Convention  and  Exhibition
division saw  the number  of exhibitors  increase with  4.3% and  the
number of visitors with 3%, compared to H1 last year.
 
Portfolio: The size of the portfolio  grew with 3.4% to ¤26.1 Bn  and
NNNAV per share increased with 1.6% to ¤172.0. The investment  market
for  shopping  centres  has  seen  very  few  transactions.   Notable
transactions within the Group's  portfolio include the divestment  of
¤741 Mn Dutch high street retail  assets and the ¤607 Mn  acquisition
of Shopping City Süd (Vienna). Subsequent to the half-year close, the
Group  announced  the  ¤434  Mn  acquisition  of  La  Maquinista  and
Habaneras  in  Spain.  Across  the  Group's  retail  division  yields
increased marginally  with  10 bps  to  4.9%. The  impact  of  rental
increases  however  has  resulted  in  an  overall  positive   retail
revaluation result of ¤319 Mn (like-for-like, net of investments) for
the Group. In the office market yields on the Group's portfolio  have
moved out on average  with 40 basis points  (France 60 bps) to  5.9%.
Rental growth  could  not  completely  offset  this  and  the  office
portfolio lost ¤315 Mn in value (like-for-like, net of investments).
 
Financing: During the first half year, the rating agencies  confirmed
the Group's  A (Standard  &  Poors') and  A-3 (Moody's)  ratings,  in
recognition of the fact that the  Group is one of the least  indebted
property companies in the world.
In H1, the Group successfully secured some ¤1.23 Bn medium/long  term
loans (4.4 years at 63 bps) with another ¤0.4 Bn being finalised.
 
Changes in Management Board effective on September 1, 2008:
After having served on Unibail-Rodamco's Management Board more than a
year with a focus on integration and corporate development, Mr. Joost
Bomhoff (59)  proposed  to  the  CEO and  the  Supervisory  Board  of
Unibail-Rodamco, which have  accepted, that his  role evolve  outside
the Management  Board  focusing  essentially  on  sustainability.  In
addition, Mr. J. Bomhoff will  chair the Unibail-Rodamco Academy  and
in that  position  will bring  his  strong knowledge  in  retail  and
commercial real  estate  to  the many  talented  young  professionals
throughout  the  Group.  In   parallel,  the  Supervisory  Board   of
Unibail-Rodamco has decided to appoint Mr. Bertrand Julien-Laferrière
(50), who has accepted, as member of the Management Board, subject to
regular approval by  the Dutch  Authority Financial  Markets. Mr.  B.
Julien-Laferrière will assume the role of Chief Development  Officer,
responsible for the origination and execution of property development
projects,  for  the  construction  of   new  assets  and  for   major
restructurings, extensions or refurbishments of existing assets.  Mr.
B. Julien-Laferrière  joined  the Group  in  November 2007  as  Chief
Executive Officer of  Unibail-Rodamco Development, the  international
development arm of Unibail-Rodamco S.A.
 
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Key consolidated    |    H1 2008    |    H1 2007    |        |Growth %|
|indicators (in ¤ Mn)|Unibail-Rodamco|    Unibail    |Growth %|like for|
|                    |               |               |        |  like  |
|--------------------+---------------+---------------+--------+--------|
|  |                 |               |               |        |        |
|--+-----------------+---------------+---------------+--------+--------|
|  |                 |               |               |        |        |
|--+-----------------+---------------+---------------+--------+--------|
|  |Shopping centres |      435      |      127      |        |  7.9%  |
|--+-----------------+---------------+---------------+--------+--------|
|  |Offices          |      115      |      74       |        | 11.1%  |
|--+-----------------+---------------+---------------+--------+--------|
|  |Convention &     |               |               |        |        |
|  |Exhibition and   |      49       |      32       |        |  4.6%  |
|  |hôtels           |               |               |        |        |
|--------------------+---------------+---------------+--------+--------|
|Net rental income   |      599      |      233      |        |  8.1%  |
|--------------------+---------------+---------------+--------+--------|
|  |                 |               |               |        |        |
|--------------------+---------------+---------------+--------+--------|
|Valuation movements |               |               |        |        |
|and gain on         |      106      |      925      |        |        |
|disposals           |               |               |        |        |
|--------------------+---------------+---------------+--------+--------|
|  |                 |               |               |        |        |
|--------------------+---------------+---------------+--------+--------|
|Net profit group    |      489      |     1,144     |        |        |
|share               |               |               |        |        |
|--------------------+---------------+---------------+--------+--------|
|of which net        |      394      |      187      |        |        |
|recurring profit    |               |               |        |        |
|--------------------+---------------+---------------+--------+--------|
|  |                 |               |               |        |        |
|--------------------+---------------+---------------+--------+--------|
|Recurring earning   |    4.33 ¤     |    4.05 ¤     |  6.9%  |        |
|per share           |               |               |        |        |
|--------------------+---------------+---------------+--------+--------|
|  |                 |               |               |        |        |
|--------------------+---------------+---------------+--------+--------|
|Total distribution  |    3.40 ¤     |    2.00 ¤     | 70.0%  |        |
|(since January 1st) |               |               |        |        |
|--------------------+---------------+---------------+--------+--------|
|  |                 |               |               |        |        |
|--+-----------------+---------------+---------------+--------+--------|
|  |                 |               |               |        |        |
|--------------------+---------------+---------------+-----------------|
|                    | June 30, 2008 | Dec 31, 2007  |%                |
|                    |Unibail-Rodamco|Unibail-Rodamco|                 |
|--------------------+---------------+---------------+-----------------|
|Fully diluted       |               |               |                 |
|liquidation Net     |    172.0 ¤    |    169.3 ¤    |1.6%             |
|Asset Value per     |               |               |                 |
|share               |               |               |                 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
 
The English press release can be downloaded from the following link:
 
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Unibail-Rodamco
P.O. Box 75600 Schiphol Netherlands
 
ISIN: 
FR0000124711; 
Listed: Compartment A (Large Caps) in EURONEXT AMSTERDAM;