Thank you very much, and welcome, everyone, to our half year results call. Joining us on the call today we have the management team, including Jeremy Lewis, Evert Jan van Garderen, Peter Mills, Roberto Fraticelli, Pascal Le Goueff, and Valeria Di Nisio.

I will now hand over to Jeremy Lewis.

Thank you very much. Well, good morning, everyone.

Yes, I actually came despite all the despair around the world, especially in England. Actually, I don't think we've done badly this half.

As you can see, our income is up and, of course, that includes having made a fairly large investment in our low-yielding [indiscernible] property. And obviously, most of the stuff we've been selling so far is at higher yields.

Nonetheless, because of our funding channel couldn't attune, of course. The income has risen, as you can see, about 4%.

And therefore, the direct investment result itself which, of course, we try to ignore IFRS as much as possible, is good. No, I mean, somebody, I can't remember who, made some comment about can we maintain the dividend.

Well, I think on these numbers, you can see we most certainly can. And we never predicted a rise but clearly, on these numbers, if we chose to, we could.

But our intention, as always, I'm afraid, is to be our normal boring selves and continue that steady stream of margins. Property valuations...

Yes, off a bit.

And I think mostly in France. Yes, things have been hard in France with a mixture, and Pascal will talk in much more detail, but the strikes particularly on the railway and especially with our biggest investment next to a railway station at the Gare Saint Lazare, the canicule, and of course the rich Gilets Jaunes recently, whether they actually get over the outstrip, we'll see.

But -- no, but I think, nonetheless, the fact is all that vacant space that people were worried about in the Passage du Havre, all the terms are agreed, so there will be no vacancies now. Again, I think things are holding up fairly well, and Pascal will talk about some of the significant increases in [indiscernible].

So I think we're not in hell at the moment. Some people might argue it's a bit purgatorial, but yes, I think -- I really believe that the worst effect of online sales we've probably seen.

I think there will probably be a steady increase. But each of us now are obviously combining the 2 channels very effectively.

So -- and we're not seeing any change in the desire of retailers to take space. They're taking longer to make decisions, there's no doubt about that.

So we're quite understandably being a bit more careful, but -- so valuations, down a bit. What's going to happen in June?

Don't know. There were very few comparables, of course, around our very fine properties and the value should be relying on comparable sales.

We'll see. I mean, certainly, there's nothing uniquely apart from very inferior properties that are sold at high yields, which are not comparable.

There is one possible large sale, but I suspect that probably won't happen. And in France, we're not hearing, I don't think, Pascal, of any major sales coming up?

No.

No, because most of the decent properties are owned by decent companies, of course. I know [ Tokyo ] is selling, but they are a decent company and they're not going to give things away.

So -- no, I think there's a reasonable degree of instability. Of course, I think a lot of commentators are talking from a U.K.

point of view and it really is quite a bit true . But no -- but certainly, in our markets, I think we're reasonably confident.

I mean, I repeat that the 1% vacancy number has not changed. And actually, if you look at the back of the little handout we did, the sort of summary, and I very deliberately have given you the numbers of vacancies and OCRs since June 2007.

And the reason for that is to show that even in the crash of 2008, there was very little change and our vacancies didn't change. Now maybe some analysts will expect a crash bigger than 2008, I doubt it, but it's -- of course, it's possible.

But what I'm saying is the likelihood is, even if we do, because our rates have been so carefully matched to turn its turnover and we have good relationships, I don't expect any major problem. Could be famous last words, of course.

But so far so good, I think. So our like-for-like rental growth this period is modest, you could say, 1.5%, but it's been improving a bit, particularly on the relettings and renewals.

And I think the renewals, it shouldn't be underestimated because that is a tenant who knows our center, that's been happy for 10 years or whatever it is, and wants to renew for another 10 years. Now, I think that's a very important sign.

Obviously, getting new tenants is important, we want to keep changing the tenant mix. So our arrears, they did go up for a bit temporarily until we sold our systems in Brussels, but we have now installed our systems, particularly the fearsome Christine Marest is off to train the people, of course, so that seems to be working.

And clearly talking about Woluwe, it's a massive investment, but we're now getting much closer to putting the planning application, which will go on the 23rd of April to go under the new, more concise and easily controlled regime. Otherwise, we would have done it earlier.

But it looks like on the latest numbers we're doing, the yield on the extension we're going to do, which is going to cost about EUR 80 million roughly. It's going to be at the very least, 8%.

And that's assuming we keep the 100-or-so apartments and don't sell them. If we sell them, actually, the yield on the remaining will be better.

So -- and of course, a couple of years after we finally got our consent. We can make an application for a further extension.

So no, we're very happy with Woluwe. I know it's expensive, but the best always is.

And it remains our soundest investment by a long run, I think -- the lack of competition, its position and indeed the very interesting Belgian market. Why it is?

Nobody can be sure, but the stock market is, as you all know, much better than I for real estate securities. They're all trading at or above NAV.

And that's, I think, a reflection of the relative stability of the property market there, which for a relatively small country even though it's, of course, the capital of Europe -- one of them. No, it's encouraging.

So -- and the reason we went into Woluwe even though, of course, it was expensive was not just the good returns we expect but the stability we think that it will provide. Where France is going, Pascal will comment.

But again, I think it's very dangerous to assume that there are major problems in France. And if anybody who knows France well will know there's a season for les manifs -- the manifestations.

And the French, of course, enjoy this sort of thing. It's a national sport really.

Now whether this one is more serious than the others, I don't know, but it's not 1968 really, at all, I don't think at the moment. But of course, populism is stirring.

And of course, Italy, which Roberto will talk about. So I think in terms of yields, looking forward, I suspect foreign investors are going to be put off, more in Italy, even though the underlying market is stronger, I would say, than France because there's less supply of shopping center space.

And indeed, you can look at our results, and our rental increases, et cetera. So on the ground, it's a stronger market.

But politically, it's a bit of in shambles, clearly. And I think that's going to put off foreign investors, probably -- we'll see.

So I think if there is any potential vulnerability that I don't think is great because we're not aware of any major sale. I think it would be on the yield side rather than the income side, because I think the Italian families remain their normal conservative selves.

Unemployment has been going down in the North, not necessarily in the South. But of course, one has to admit that there's a black economy.

So actually, the GDP numbers, probably underestimate the real strength and the real spending that we're seeing in the shops. So Sweden, Peter will obviously talk about in much greater detail, but it's pretty solid stuff.

We've spent a lot of money on our centers over the years. They're all the best of their types and locations.

And even though some of the retailers are rationalizing their chains, they're not doing it at our centers and we have effectively no vacancy. So fingers firmly crossed.

But they have been carefully selective, and I have to keep repeating that people talk about all sorts of factors that affect shopping centers, but the fundamental one is the land, [ which ] where it is, and that's the one thing you can't change. And that's something being very boring old fashioned property investors are always concentrated and the positions are all good in our centers.

So that's probably enough for me. But no -- looking forward, we think -- things are not as easy as they have been, of course, and we have had a boom over the last 8 years or something.

We're no longer in a boom. On the other hand, with the economies not looking great at the moment, so standing around 1% in Europe [indiscernible] that means that interest is not going to rise.

So the tension between low interest rates for investors and low economic growth suggests to me that yields of good property -- and that include good offices or maybe even good warehouses and good shopping centers are not going to change radically. So investors with a lot of money to invest will, I think, appreciate the yields.

And again, there is a difference I think that there is a lot of money in terms of bigger funds, book size, et cetera, et cetera, and all the rest of them, looking for good properties at the moment. Whereas the equity market is in a complete state of panic, I think.

And there is a degree of hysteria out there. As Klépierre's results, our results have shown, there's a considerable degree of stability in our market.

We're not seeing the problems that are occurring in the UK. So looking forward, of course, it's not easy out there, but we staggered through difficult times before, and I'm sure we'll carry on with perfectly reasonable results looking forward.

So at that point, I'll shut up and hand over to Evert Jan, who will talk about money.

Thank you, Jeremy. Good morning, everybody.

Yes, I would like to say a few words about the change in our loan book and how we are funding the recent acquisition of the remaining part of the Woluwe shopping center and the consequences for the equity and debt of the company. Our funding target for the first 6 months was twofold: firstly, to extend the loan book further; and secondly, to lock-in the very favorable interest rates, which are currently available to us.

Our first step into this direction was taken by the closing of a loan of EUR 248 million granted by Intesa San Paolo, BNP Paribas and UBI to our Italian subsidiary in July for a term of 8 years. And during the 6 months reporting period, we repaid an amount of EUR 45 million of the bridge facility of an initial principal amount of EUR 475 million granted by ABN Amro and ING to fund the acquisition of the Woluwe shopping center in March 2018.

At 31 December, 2018, the amount outstanding on this bridge facility was already reduced to EUR 35 million. And on Monday next, the 11th of February, this facility will be repaid entirely.

So within 1 year, we have repaid the entire amount, although the availability period of the facility was 18 months. The sale of Les Allées de Cormeilles in France in December for EUR 49.9 million resulted in the repayment of loans totaling EUR 20 million.

And the balance was used to fund the purchase of the company controlling 6 boutiques and the supermarket in the Woluwe shopping center in Brussels. The Belgian subsidiary owning the Woluwe shopping center also entered into a EUR 50 million loan granted by ABN Amro and ING, under the same terms and conditions as the 7-year bullet loan entered into in June 2018 with the same banks.

And this loan was used for the purchase and is secured by a mortgage of the Woluwe shopping center. These transactions resulted in an average term of the loan portfolio of almost 6 years at the end of December.

And for the 2019 calendar year, there are no noncurrent borrowings maturing at all. The interest costs are hedged for 71% compared to June at 78%, mostly by interest rate swaps for an average term of just over 6 years.

Given that the attractive market interest rates did not move substantially compared to a year ago, we'd locked in future interest rates by entering into new hedging contracts. As a result, we achieved fixed rate levels of well below 2%.

The overall interest rate reduced to 2.1%. And with the 10-year interest rate swaps rates today at 66 basis points, which is, again, 15 basis points lower than at the end of December, that will be good for our loan book as we are negotiating 2 more long-term loans for shopping centers in Val Thoiry in France and C4 in Kristianstad, Sweden, which are not yet financed at all and where we are seeking fixed interest rate coupons for the entire loan terms.

The adjusted net equity position of the company stood at EUR 2,172,000,000 and was slightly lower compared to the position we had in June. As the revaluation of the property portfolio for the reported period resulted in a small decrease of EUR 22 million, but more importantly, of course, we paid out a cash dividend in November, and that was for an amount of EUR 93 million.

The stock dividend take-up raised another EUR 30 million of new equity. The net debt portfolio increased by EUR 100 million and amounted to just over EUR 1.9 billion from EUR 1.8 billion in June 2018.

And the net debt to adjusted net equity ratio at December on the basis of proportional consolidation increased compared to the end of June and now stands at 89%. The net loan to property value increased to 46% from 44% reported in June.

This movement is not unusual for Eurocommercial, as we paid out a dividend at the end of the year. However, we are committed to reducing these ratios and further plan sales, plus the income for the next 6 months will improve these ratios at the end of this financial year, all else remaining equal.

The transaction whereby our Belgian subsidiary will become the owner of the INNO department store in Woluwe shopping center will not require any cash or debt from the company as our joint venture partner, AG, will obtain shares in our Belgian subsidiary in exchange for contributing this property. The strong rental uplift with stable overall expenses, comprising property and interest expenses and overheads, contributed to a direct investment result of EUR 1.18 per depositary receipt.

This is EUR 0.02 more than for the 6 months period in the previous year. And that concludes my brief observations.

And now, I would like to hand over to my colleague, Pascal Le Goueff, who will speak about France.

Thanks, Evert Jan. Good morning, everybody.

Let's start with sales in France. So retail sales in France remained under pressure last year, but we started to see some improvement in the final 3 months of the year despite the impact of the Gilets Jaunes.

Sales from boutiques in ECP's portfolio outperformed the national indices. If we look at the last quarter, we are down minus 0.8% across the portfolio with boutiques showing plus 1.8%.

In December, our boutiques across the portfolio showed also a positive number, plus 0.6%, despite this very difficult context of Gilets Jaunes demonstration. Passage du Havre suffered from demonstrations.

We had to close Passage du Havre one Saturday in December -- a demonstration of -- organized nearby the center. But the movement hit also our provincial center, where the Gilets Jaunes blocked the access of our centers.

Fortunately, no damage was recorded. So despite these mixed results in terms of tenant turnover, economic fundamentals in France are improving with unemployment down minus 1.4% over 1 year.

The public deficit lower than expected due to higher corporate income tax, higher spending program for 2018 due to Macron's announcement. And then there is also a sign of recovery in the housing markets with price rising over the last 2 or 3 years.

So these positive news could lead to higher consumption levels for 2018. Rental growth.

Like-for-like rental growth was slightly positive, plus 0.2%. If we look at the split, the relettings and the renewals have produced 0.6% rental growth from the 42 deals we made at an average uplift of 7.7%.

Indexation has produced plus 1.3% with vacancies minus 1.7%, mainly due to the departure of H&M in Passage du Havre and Les Atlantes that impacted the overall results. I will come back to this vacancy shortly.

If we look only at renewals, which is a good long-term performance indicator, we have renewed 24 leases at an average uplift of 11.5%. And we are not expecting any change to this trend for the coming months.

On arrears, our experienced team of rent collection in Paris has maintained our arrears at a level of 0.5% of France for the last 12 months. This performance is also due to rigorous selection of our tenants by our retail team and the finance team would check and analyze together the financial statement of each potential tenant.

So vacancy. The number of vacant units has been stable over last year's with around 7 units out of 500 units.

In Passage du Havre, the terms have been agreed related to remaining vacant units. And in Les Atlantes, negotiations have started with a major international retailer for the unit vacated by H&M.

In terms of demand from retailers, it remained strong, especially in sports, the restaurants, and health and beauty sectors. Fashion sector is moving quickly with international retailers such as Primark, New Yorker, Uniqlo, expanding across the country, whereas H&M and Zara appeared to be slowing down their expansion to concentrate on larger stores.

Valuation. The slight decrease of all valuations, minus 1.9%, compared to last June is a combination of a slight increase in the capitalization rate and a revision of the expected rental income of some of our major units in Passage du Havre and Les Grands Hommes.

A field for secondary shopping centers are -- maybe expected to increase. There is a lack of evidence for prime shopping center transaction in France, except maybe for Vitrolles, sold by Klépierre to Carmila at the beginning of the year for an amount of EUR 200 million at a yield of around 5%.

The investment market in France for retailers [ such that ] France was EUR 4.4 billion of retail assets [ underwrited ] in 2018, which represented an increase of 10% compared to 2017. Out of this EUR 4.4 billion, EUR 2.9 billion were invested in the high streets with large transactions such as 114 Avenue des Champs-Elysées, let to Apple, bought by Hines for a price of EUR 600 million, producing a net yield around 2.5%.

And as the last transaction, it has to be mentioned, is the sale of 2 Monoprix portfolios sold to Generali and La Mondiale [ AG2R ], for a total amount of EUR 800 million at a yield of 4.75%. So investors, mostly foreign in France, have been active this year in the Retail Park transaction such as Eden, located in the east part of Parisian suburbs, bought by Real I.S.

And obviously, Cormeilles, that we have sold to Aberdeen Standard Investments at valuation -- slightly, slightly above valuation, and thanks to Emilie Rizzotti for the great job she did for this transaction. On the project front, in Etrembières, we have submitted a planning permit to build 1,600 square meters for retail boxes, which will be let to restaurant operators, for which there's a strong demand.

We are just by the motorway, which goes to Chamonix and great visibility and access. In Centr'Azur, Hyères, we also bought 2.4 hectares of land adjoining the center, which will facilitate the development of 2,000 square meters of retail park, for which the Groupe Fnac Darty has shown strong interest.

But -- so -- and the great news for France comes from the CNAC, the National Committee for Commercial Authorization, would confirm authorization for the Val Thoiry project, which is an extension of around 20,000 square meters, 20 -- 10,000 extension for the gallery and 10,000 for Leroy Merlin. So bravo Ambroise and Charlotte.

On this positive note, I will hand over to Roberto.

Thank you very much, Pascal. Let's start with politics in Italy.

Well, the political picture in Italy has not changed that much. We still have the League and the Five Star Movement coalition in power.

And no big change is expected at the European elections in May. According to the latest polls, the League has around 30% of the votes, ahead of the Five Star Movement with 26%, 27% and the Democratic Party around 18%.

There is currently a big debate on Sunday openings in Italy. Well, we're quite confident that reason will at last prevail.

The Italian GDP was at plus 0.8 in 2018, but registering a minus 0.2 in the last quarter. So consumer confidence is decreasing slightly mainly due to the economic and political uncertainties in Italy and elsewhere.

But the official unemployment rate is still coming down to 10.3%,down from 10.8% last year. Please remember the statistical differences between the economies of Northern and Southern Italy, which are still significant.

Let's now look at Eurocommercial, our retail sales. So notwithstanding this economic and political climate, retail sales turnover in our centers was good with a plus 1.7% over the year compared to an Italian average of minus 2.7%, which is the latest available data provided by the CNCC, the National Council of Shopping Centers in Italy, with boutique contributing the most, while medium units were flat and hypermarket was still in negative territory.

Best performing sectors were gift and jewelry, food and beverage, also thanks to the continuous improvement in our food courts. The best performing centers were Cremona Po, Castello and I Gigli, while a small decrease in turnover was registered at Curno, also due to the extension work for the new food court.

The overall number of visitors in our Italian centers was down slightly year-on-year mainly in relation to the opening of new food discounts in the proximity of our centers, in particular, Curno, Carosello, and Castello, while good increase in visitor numbers were registered at I Gigli, still over 19 million visitors and Cremona Po with over 5 million visitors. And occupancy cost further diminished to a healthy 8.2%, down from 8.4% last year.

If we look at rental growth. Like-for-like rental growth for the 12 months was a solid 1.7.

And having [ outlayed ] inflation still low at 0.8. The main contribution came from the 90 renewals and relettings with an average rental uplift of over 11%, so thanks Valeria and the leasing team for this fantastic job.

We had only 8 empty units in our shopping centers, with most of them being strategic vacancies as a consequence of our refurbishment and expansion programs. I also wanted to highlight that the 90 days arrears in Italy are now at an astonishing 0.34%, which I think is the lowest level ever achieved in Italy.

So [ Rosala, Simone ] congratulations for that. If we go to the retail market and valuations, which I think is also a point of interest for some of you.

According to Savills, the investment volume on retail -- real estate market in Italy was EUR 2.3 billion in 2018, which was slightly higher than the EUR 2.2 billion registered in 2017. Yields for primary shopping centers were unchanged, while small increases were registered for core assets and larger yield increases for secondary assets.

Our December valuation, as you know, showed a small decrease in value of 0.5 compared to June and 0.2 compared to December. But this is mainly related to capital expenses and the acquisition of some neighboring land, which will be used for future expansions.

If we look at what we're doing for concerns, extensions, refurbishment and the rest, work are progressing for construction of the new 6,700 square meters unit at Fiordaliso in Milan for a primary tenant. The unit is expected to be open and trading by the end of 2019.

We've also signed a preliminary lease for a large H&M store at the center, which will significantly enhance the fashion and offer that we have there. Works for the new and innovative food court at Curno has commenced, with an exciting range of 20 operators.

Opening is also expected by the end of the year. And also, the new retail park in Cremona Po, which is under construction at the moment, we also expect it to be ready and open by the end of the year.

So big thanks to Carlo and our development team for working flat out on all of this. And also, congratulate our marketing colleagues, last but not least.

I mean, as you know, last December, Eurocommercial was the recipient of 3 major shopping center works by the national CNCC, and the company won in the categories of best consumer service initiative with I Portali, corporate social responsibility with I Gigli, and brand awareness and positioning with Castello. So thank you all, and now over to Peter.

Thank you. Well, in Sweden, retail sales growth remains positive and increased by 0.7% over the year to December, although the rate of growth has reduced slightly.

On the other hand, like-for-like rental growth continues to be very strong, up 3.3% over the year with roughly equal contributions coming from indexations, relettings and renewals and turnover rents. We completed 58 relettings and renewals over the period, producing an average uplift of 7.5% on those transactions.

But it was also encouraging that we currently have 70 tenants paying turnover rent, which is making a meaningful contribution to our overall Swedish rental income. Maintaining this level of rental growth and full occupancy at a time when retailers are reviewing their store network, reflects very well on the overall quality of the portfolio.

And we are definitely benefiting from the significant investments made over several years, ensuring that our shopping centers remain a retailer's first-choice location in our catchment. A good demonstration of this is H&M's recent selection of our 3 centers at Karlstad, Halmstad, and Kristianstad for their latest full range megastore concepts of around 3,000 square meters.

C4 Kristianstad was also selected by H&M for their first Afound store outside Stockholm, their latest multi-brand outlet style concept. Valuations increased by 2.7% over the 12 months and by 1.1% over the last 6 months.

With the overall initial yield remaining flat, just under 5%; the main contribution to this growth came from the increase in rental income. There are also notable uplifts at Halmstad and Kristianstad as these projects neared completion, thereby getting closer to their full income potential.

Comparable investment transactions have recently been scarce, although the start of the year saw several acquisitions by foreign buyers, including our own purchase of Valbo outside Gävle, at a yield of 5.2%. Since then, the value is referred to several city center retail purchases, mainly by Swedish institutions in cities including Lidköping, Malmö, Uppsala, and Södertälje at yields between 4.25% to 5.5%.

And there also continues to be steady demand for retail parks, particularly where groceries are included, most recently illustrated by [ Deka ] for a Swedish retail acquisition at [ Lena ] south of Stockholm, at a yield of around 5.8%. On the project front.

The final part of the rebranded, refurbished and extended Hallarna, outside Halmstad, will be completed during the year, including the 120-room hotel let on the new 15-year lease. We also recently took back the Willy’s supermarket in the original part of the Hallarna gallery, having prelet it to H&M who could possibly be trading by Christmas.

Our 31,600 square meter new shopping center C4, outside Kristianstad, had a very successful opening in September since when further lettings have taken the occupancy to 98%. Early trading reports from the [ A2 ] retailers have mainly been encouraging in what is the city's first and only external shopping center, serving a catchment of around 300,000 people.

At the end of the year, we reopened the former [ Zebra ] electrical store in the center of the gallery at Skövde, having broken this up and prelet it to 6 tenants mainly in fashion and food and beverage. Having also received a planning consent there for an extension, we're now preletting a first phase of 2,700 square meters, which we plan to commence during 2019.

Meanwhile, at Valbo outside Gävle, we are progressing our plans to complete the refurbishment and carry out a small extension, thereby improving the master plan. So looking forward, with yields likely to remain at best flat, future growth will continue to come from the ongoing projects and further rental growth supported by indexation, which last month was applied across most of the portfolios at rate of 2.3%.

And on that note, I will hand you back to the operator for questions.

I've got a couple of questions. So first of all, let's kick off with Woluwe remaining stake acquisition.

Could you disclose the yield on cost for that and see that -- the remaining from AG Insurance, I mean.

Yes, for the 2, the yield was 4.1%.

Okay. And then maybe, could you provide a bit more color regarding the disposals potentially in 2019.

Is there any emphasis on any of the particular regions that you operate, let's say, in France or in Italy? Third question, I'll just ask these in a lineup and then you can answer.

Third, regarding the DR takeup, I noticed that this year was 12.7% versus the usual one, give or take, 1/4. Anything what was causing the difference, obviously here?

Size.

And then the fourth, the competitive situation around the Geneva area, that's something that I would be curious to hear a bit more from Pascal. And then fifth, perhaps can you provide an update with Bergvik with the potential development that you have kind of like in plan for it, any new updates on that?

Let's see -- I think we can kick off with those, yes.

I think we can remember them. On the first one, I think I gave you the answer to that, 4.1%.

On disposals, no, I mean, everybody's been asked to contribute. So we sold in Italy, we sold in France, we sold in Sweden.

And I think -- and what is going to contribute further. No, I'm not going to go into detail.

We have negotiations in hand but, as always, we will only talk about things that we know, not that we expect later on. So no, I wouldn't emphasize any way in particular.

I mean, clearly, and this is a decision we have yet to make, our biggest investment by far is of course, Woluwe. And we made a secret of the fact that what do we intend to bring in a long-term partner there.

I mean, obviously, AG got a relatively small position there. But the question is whether we do that now before we have got our planning consent or after?

I mean, clearly, the property is going to be worth more when we formally do that planning consent. So we may delay that.

We haven't made a decision there yet, so that's the biggest chunk and we'll probably bring in a partner at around either just under or at 50%. So that will be the major one, I think, because that is obviously going to be [indiscernible] by the time we finish.

But again, the extension of -- the first extension of EUR 80 million, that money won't be spent probably for a couple of years knowing how long, even under the new super system, these things taking time. What was the next thing?

DR takeup.

Oh, yes, yes. I mean, I'm surprised, anybody did at the price we offered it.

Exactly, what was the dividend, 38 or something or...

EUR 38.70, that was the price we issued at. So no, we were actually very pleased with that takeup.

We had expected almost nothing. But of course, we didn't want to dilute by issuing shares, the company, and therefore, it stayed fairly close to NAV.

Right. And as far as Geneva is concerned, adding to comments from Pascal.

No, we're very happy that after a long battle, these things always take a long time, we have got a CNAC approval, national consent, if you like, having previously got the departmental consent. And we want to get on with it because that's a very good center.

As you know, we bought it from [ Fastnet ] years ago after a very professional deal with [indiscernible] who wants to come straight and has done very successfully on small high street shops. But no, it's -- I mean, we have significant interest not just in [indiscernible] et cetera, but also a very major national -- international retailer who should we name [indiscernible] -- but that area, Pascal, comment?

Yes. No, I would say that, until this morning, when we got this decision of CNAC, we were a little bit behind our competitor, with [ Fre ] because [ Fre ] the commercial authorization confirmed.

So today, we are in -- at the same level in terms of authorization. But I will say the main difference and big difference is that we have the brands the answer with us, and we have signed with Leroy Merlin, we have signed with Decathlon.

We are about to sign with a major international retailer. And there's a lot of demand and Val Thoiry is doing very well.

We've got a lot of demand from retailers who want to get larger shops. So I will say in terms of France, we are now -- we're not behind [ Fre ].

We are [Foreign Language].

Geneva, I mean, the Swiss unemployment is very low. The economy maybe is not quite as strong as it has been, but it is pretty damn strong, generally.

So -- no, I mean, we may be tempting France, which means things are a bit cheaper. But actually, with low unemployment in the city of Geneva.

Peter, Bergvik?

Yes. I mean, in fact -- I mean on Bergvik, it remains our strongest investor shopping center.

We would love to do another major extension there. I mean, planning and particularly problems with traffic is the thing that's likely to contain it.

But what we have achieved is we took back, as I think you know, 3,000 meters from Coop hypermarket, which we're in the middle of reconstructing, but we just handed it over in January to H&M who'll be operating in -- by spring. But no, I think, in Sweden, in terms of anything in addition to the smaller extensions I mentioned during my talk just then, I think that the more likely and exciting medium-term extensions are likely to be a second round in both Norrköping and [indiscernible], which could each be at least 10,000 square meters where land we have and there's a more favorable following on the planning side as well.

So I think to the medium term, I'll be looking more likely there rather than Bergvik, sadly.

Yes. So I heard a couple of interesting comments.

First one, I think, on Woluwe additional purchase. So could you maybe confirm and maybe elaborate a bit further that I heard Evert Jan correctly say that there was no cash involved in one of the parts of the transaction?

And then, am I reading the press release correctly that as you kind of assume, the first tranche was worth EUR 100 million and the second one EUR 70 million?

Yes, yes. No, I mean, the second is the department store.

And they haven't yet decided whether they're going to renew their lease or not. [indiscernible] rather they didn't because we would relet it very easily, at least the rent they're paying.

But we won't know that for a while. But no, that was the issue of shares, that Evert Jan said, so there's no cash involved.

Sorry, Jaap, that is still to happen, the issue of the shares. So that is something, which will happen later this year and then in exchange for the department store.

Yes, okay. That's very good to know.

And then the INNO lease, how long does it still run for?

It might be a month or it might be 5 years or something. We don't know, but -- obviously, they're part of a group that has some -- well, maybe some difficulty.

We have had some [ big ] companies,and we've seen what has happened with Karlstad [indiscernible], et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Yes, who knows.

But clearly, this store is, I suspect, trades rather better than the one in the center of Brussels. But we'll see.

They say -- Valeria has been obviously talking to them so far with locals, but they seem happy unfortunately.

They do, they do. The turnover is very good [indiscernible].

No. I know.

I know. Yes, and they're a bit of an institution in Brussels, so I shouldn't mock them really.

It's just -- as you know, my views are that the department stores are becoming a bit like dinosaurs, but they are -- some of them more than others, clearly.

And they service other customers.

We shall see.

But good, at least about the equity infusion that's pretty welcome. It also ties into the second question on the LTV side.

It's roughly -- you're planning to lower it, but is there any kind of guidance you can give us towards -- I guess, you haven't really changed your views on what the correct LTV would be or net debt to EBITDA [indiscernible].

No, we want to get it back down to nearly to where it was at around 40, of course. Yes, I mean, there are discussions underway now, and I don't want to prejudice any of those.

And as you know, in real estate, until the money changes hands, anything can happen. But clearly, we've got plans.

There's another couple of hundred million ourselves, as you know, so -- but how they're to be distributed, I'd rather not say at the moment because -- I'll repeat, until the money is in our bank, we don't know. [indiscernible].

That's the plan though.

Yes. No, clear, and I think that will be appreciated.

And then the final one, I heard Peter say something about the kind of agreeable level of variable rent being paid down in Sweden. So could you kind of put some more context around that in terms of kind of percentage of total rent and is that also seen in other parts of the portfolio, et cetera?

Yes. Well, I only mentioned it because it looked rather -- in terms of number of participants, when I was looking through the numbers for this.

It just struck me that, that was very encouraging to have 70 tenants actually paying something towards variable. I mean, obviously, they all pay a minimum base rent and indexation, which forms, as it always has, the vast majority of the rental income.

But at the moment, it's producing around 4% as a contribution to our Swedish rental income, which I think has probably been one of the highest levels...

It's double our average. I mean, our average over the last, God knows how many years, has been around 2%.

So no, it is an excellent performance. It really is.

There's another measure that actually, the rental levels are around right. There isn't the great pressure in those rents and the OCR is at the right sort of levels.

So -- and obviously, we would hope that those turnover rents get converted into MGR on the next round of lease renewals, which is normally the case. I think it is a healthy sign.

I will just emphasize yet again. I know it's probably becoming boring, but if you're worried about more difficult economic times, then this is exactly the time that our caution and reasonableness on rents and OCR is really going to pay off -- well, is already with our lowest vacancies in the business.

So it's a trade-off, but nevertheless, we're cautious people and we're not going to change.

Okay, great. And then maybe just a final one, if I may, on disposals.

I have to try. I mean, are there any assets off limits for disposal?

No. I mean, there are preferences, of course, but we have no -- unlike St.

Teresa, we have no red lines.

Well, thank you very much all for joining the call. We remain at your disposal if you have any questions.

But in the meantime, have a good day. Thank you.

We'll see some of you on the road show, so thank you.