Property shares significantly under pressure across the globe in 2008
In the course of the financial crisis and economic downturn, property shares throughout the world came under significant pressure in 2008. This development affected companies from sectors and regions. The EPRA/NAREIT Europe Index went down by 48.6% last year while the EPRA / NAREIT Global Index lost 45%. In Asia the fall in property share prices amounted to as much as 50%, while in North America it was 37.6%. Within Europe, property shares from Norway posted the greatest loss at -91.5% followed by Spain (-87.4%) and Austria (-85.5%). Switzerland was the only country to register a slight price gain of 1.1% for property shares (source: EPRA). The performance of the EPRA / NAREIT Germany Index was in line with the European average at -52.7%.
Deutsche EuroShop AG successfully combated the negative sector trend in 2008 with a 7.9% gain in its share price. The share of Deutsche EuroShop AG accordingly achieved the fourth best performance of all shares represented globally in the EPRA/NAREIT indices and the best performance of all European real estate companies contained in the EPRA / NAREIT indices. In terms of Market capitalisation, the Deutsche EuroShop share grew to become the largest German real estate company with €835.3 million as per 31 March 2009.