Liberty Property Trust Announces Financial Projections

MALVERN, Pa., Dec. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Liberty Property Trust has announced its expected 2013 financial results and projections for 2014 financial performance. Liberty expects to report funds from operations ("FFO") per share in the range of $2.48 - $2.50 for 2013 and in the range of $2.45 - $2.55 for 2014.

Commenting on this guidance, Liberty's chief executive officer, Bill Hankowsky said: "In the last six months of 2013, Liberty engaged in substantial transactions that altered the composition of our portfolio. This activity has brought us to our desired place – we are now a company primarily focused on industrial real estate. This activity also gives us the potential for significant growth beginning in the latter half of 2014 and moving into 2015. We continue to see strong activity in industrial markets and believe we are well positioned to translate this opportunity into meaningful earnings growth in 2015."

In October, Liberty purchased Cabot Industrial Value Fund III for $1.475 billion. This transaction increased Liberty's industrial platform by 23 million square feet and added 177 properties in 24 new and existing Liberty industrial markets. Reflected in 2013 guidance are costs associated with the Cabot acquisition and earnings dilution from the associated August 2013 equity issuance that was used to prefund a portion of the purchase price of the transaction.

In November, Liberty announced that it has contracted to sell a 6.6 million square foot portfolio of suburban office and high-finish flex properties and 159 acres of land for approximately $700 million. This sale is expected to close in two installments, half in late December 2013 and the remainder in late January 2014. Reflected in 2014 guidance is the expected reduction in NOI resulting from the sale of the properties.

"Given the portfolio transactions, the nature of Liberty's assets will be quite different in 2014," said chief financial officer, George Alburger. "This change is positive for the company, but the positive impact will not be reflected in our operating results until the proceeds from the sale have been fully deployed, which we anticipate will not occur until the latter part of 2014."

A reconciliation of projected FFO to projected GAAP net income for both 2013 and 2014 is below (all amounts projected):

About the Company

Liberty Property Trust (NYSE:LRY) is a leader in commercial real estate, serving customers in the United States and United Kingdom, through the development, acquisition, ownership and management of superior office and industrial properties. Liberty's 106 million square foot portfolio consists of 843 properties providing office, distribution and light manufacturing facilities to 2,100 tenants.

Additional information about the company is available in the Investor section of the company's web site at www.libertyproperty.com.  

Liberty will host a conference call during which management will discuss these projections and underlying assumptions on Tuesday, December 17, 2013, at 10:00 A.M., ET. The conference call can be accessed by dialing (855) 277-7530 and entering the passcode 15788226. The conference call will also be available live at www.libertyproperty.com in the "Investor Relations" section of the site. If you are unable to join the conference call, you may access the archived webcast in the Investor section of the web site. In addition, a recording will be available telephonically until January 17, 2014 by dialing (855) 859-2056 and using the passcode 15788226.

The statements in this release contain statements that are or will be forward-looking, such as statements relating to, among others, the impact of the transactions described herein on our portfolio, business and financial results, the consummation of the sale transaction described herein and the deployment of the proceeds of that sale, and future growth in our financial results. These forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as "believes," "anticipates," "expects," "estimates," "should," "seeks," "intends," "proposed," "planned," " are confident," "outlook" and "goal" or similar expressions. Although the company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, the company can give no assurance that its expectations will be achieved. As forward-looking statements, these statements involve important risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expected results and, accordingly, such results may differ from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of the company. The company assumes no obligation to update or supplement forward-looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent events. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, without limitation, uncertainties affecting real estate business generally (such as entry into new leases, renewals of leases and dependence on tenants' business operations), risks relating to the integration of the operations of entities that we have acquired or may acquire, risks relating to financing arrangements and sales of securities, possible environmental liabilities, risks relating to leverage and debt service (including availability of financing terms acceptable to the company and sensitivity of the company's operations and financing arrangements to fluctuations in interest rates), dependence on the primary markets in which the company's properties are located, the existence of complex regulations relating to status as a REIT and the adverse consequences of the failure to qualify as a REIT, risks relating to litigation, and the potential adverse impact of market interest rates on the market price for the company's securities.

SOURCE Liberty Property Trust