Improving market conditions across Europe helped sustain a high level of leasing activity in the Prologis European Properties (PEPR) portfolio, pushing the total for the first three months of the year to 388,500 m2. In a statement on Thursday to announce its first-quarter results, PEPR said it concluded 48 lease transactions in Q1, including 127,400m2 of new or expanded leases.

'Leasing activity has carried on at the high levels seen in 2010 and portfolio occupancy at 93.2% is in line with our forecasts and remains well above the market average,' CEO Peter Cassells said. 'We continue to expect average occupancy for 2011 to be in the 93% to 94% range, in line with 2010 levels.'

EPRA net asset value stood at EUR 6.37 per ordinary unit at end-March, up slightly from EUR 6.32 at year-end 2010.

Loan-to-value reduced to 52.6% at March 2011 from 53.0% at the end of December 2010. Cassells: 'Post quarter end, we have reduced this further to 51.5% following the early repayment of one of our more expensive debt facilities, a EUR 51 mln secured loan originally due to mature in October 2014.'

The repayment is in line with PEPR's strategy to further improve its capital structure as the fund pursues a return to an investment grade credit rating, Cassells added.