Klépierre completed the sale of an office building in Levallois-Perret on the outskirts of Paris for $47.7 million in early April and has also agreed to sell a storefront retail property complex with a GLA of 30,655 square feet in Rouen for $15.9 million. It also made investments of $117.9 million on projects in France, Norway, Sweden, Hungary and Portugal. It said the leasing of its major projects under development is making good progress, with reservations running at more than 60% at the Corvin Atrium shopping centre in Budapest, more than 50% for the Millénaire project in the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers and 40% at Aqua Portimão in Portugal.

Rental income grew 4.6% to $303.3 million in Q1, mainly as a result of new developments delivered last year but it said sales revenues of its retail tenants are now starting to show signs of recovery, growing 1.4% year-on-year in the first quarter after contracting 1.6% in 2009. This improvement was particularly visible in March. Shopping centers and other retail stores account for 95.7% of Klépierre's rental income, and the gradual improvement in retailers' revenues should lead to a slight increase in the group's rental income on a current portfolio basis and, to a lesser degree, on a constant portfolio basis.

Klépierre's debt remained relatively stable in Q1, standing at $9.7 billion at March end, with the average cost of debt steady at 4.48%. The company took advantage of an easing of interest rates in January to anticipate the renewal of its interest rate hedges maturing at end-2011 and in 2012, and in early April it raised $1.2 billion through a bond issue and private placement to refinance debt and enable it to seize investment opportunities. Klépierre now has $1.6 billion of unused credit lines and the average duration of its debt stands at 6.3 years.