Financial

The Art of Possibility

Presentation of our key figures, as stated in our Annual Report 2009, named ‘The Art of Possibility’ (release date April 23rd 2010).

In many ways, 2009 was one of the most remarkable years of our company’s history.
After 2008 - a year where the market deteriorated rapidly - 2009 was still a year of heavy storms.

There were three main objectives in 2009:
1. Pursuing the contracted development deals, despite the drop of value in the market;
2. Delivering projects on time and within budget, in a market with contractors facing difficult financial conditions;
3. Acquiring the best sustainable new real estate projects in the market.

Our team successfully managed to achieve this. We made full use of every market possibility.

In a market where property financing is a crucial success factor, we were able to start the construction of four beautiful projects: The new headquarters for energy company Eneco (30,000 m2 gfa, Rotterdam), a new office for accountants KPMG (10,500 m2 gfa, The Hague) and the TNT Green Off ice (17,000 m2 gfa, Hoofddorp), the most sustainable off ice in Europe. Last but not least, we were able to start the construction of the multifunctional building “De Rotterdam” (160,000 m2 gfa, Rotterdam), a codevelopment with MAB Development and Holland’s largest development ever built, designed by the world-famous architect Rem Koolhaas.

Starting construction of these important projects was a result of our long-term relationship with our financiers. They have financed our real estate projects this year for an amount of approximately 350 million euros.

Besides the deliverables in our domestic Dutch market, our international team has achieved remarkable results in Frankfurt and Berlin.

In 2009 our company was faced with the most difficult and competitive market in our
history, yet still remained profitable. Despite the considerable drop in property values,
we were able to face the market challenges and create many new opportunities. We are
satisfied with the increased focus on risk management on our projects. Nevertheless,
for the coming years, we are aiming for strong improvement in our profitability and an
ongoing redesign of our business model to suit this objective.