BIG shopping center (archives)

US activity catapults BIG revenues

Company's income from shopping mall management and leasing activity in first half of 2011 totals NIS 88 million – 81% rise compared to same period last year

Reuters | Published: 08.23.11, 09:17

In 2010, the BIG Shopping Centers Group acquired 24 malls in the United States. Financial reports show that the acquisition spree paid off – the US activity yielded the company NIS 71.8 million (about $20 million) in the first half of 2011, compared with only NIS 2.2 million ($610,000) in the first half of the previous year.

"Nowadays, we are engaged in the business development of our US activity and this is the general direction to which we aspire to take our business," BIG CEO Eitan Bar Zeev told Calcalist on Sunday.

Bar Zeev believes that the crisis in the US is far from over, offering BIG – which deals in leasing, management and maintenance of open air shopping centers in the US and Israel – acquisition opportunities in attractive prices.

BIG concluded the second quarter of 2011 with an income of NIS 87.7 million ($25 million) – an 81% increase compared with the same quarter last year. One of the reasons for the growing income is the renewal of leasing agreements at higher rents.

In the first half of the year, BIG reported a NIS 173 million ($48 million) income compared with NIS 94 million ($26 million) in the same period last year.

BIG, controlled by the Naftali family (73%), ended the second quarter of 2011 with a net profit of NIS 64 million ($18 million), similarly to the same quarter last year.

The company's net operating income improved remarkably as well, totaling NIS 70.1 million ($19.5 million) for the quarter compared with NIS 41 million ($11.5 million) in the same quarter last year.

The company's cash flow from business operations for the quarter totaled NIS 32 million ($9 million) compared with NIS 12 million ($3 million) in the same quarter last year.