Real estate investment holding trust Liberty Property Trust (LRY) on Monday reported a net loss for the fourth quarter, compared to a profit in the year-ago period. The latest quarter's results were impacted by an impairment charge. Excluding items, funds from operations or FFO per share for the quarter matched analysts' consensus estimate.
The Malvern, Pennsylvania-based company reported net loss available to common shareholders for the fourth quarter of $52.09 million or $0.46 per share, compared to net income of $51.80 million or $0.53 per share in the year-ago quarter.
FFO available to common shareholders for the latest quarter was negative $16.05 million or $0.14 per share, compared to positive FFO of $80.90 million or $0.80 per share in the year-ago period.
Excluding a non-cash impairment charge of $94.5 million related to certain of the company's investments in unconsolidated joint ventures and related goodwill, and termination fees of $1.7 million, FFO for the latest quarter was $0.67 per share. On average, fourteen analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.67 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
The company's loss from continuing operations for the latest quarter was $57.59 million or $0.54 per share compared to income from continuing operations of $48.13 million or $0.42 per share in the same period last year.
Total operating revenue for the quarter increased 1.5% to $187.58 million from $184.77 million in the prior-year quarter. Analysts had a revenue consensus of $185.46 million for the quarter.
Bill Hankowsky, chief executive officer of Liberty Property Trust said, "Fourth quarter activity was encouraging. At the end of the year we saw a marked increase in the number and quality of industrial prospects, coupled with renewed willingness on the part of companies to make commitments, in both the office and industrial sectors. This translated into very strong leasing performance. We believe that the market has bottomed, we are beginning to see very gradual recovery in the industrial sector, and we may see similar positive signs in the office sector in the second half of this year should the nation's employment situation improve."
Rental revenues for the fourth quarter were $131.84 million, up from $128.65 million in the same period last year. Operating expense reimbursement declined slightly to $55.74 million from $56.12 million in the year-ago period.
Quarterly operating expenses increased to $115.79 million from $114.67 million in the same period last year. At December 31, 2009, Liberty's in-service portfolio of 78.2 million square feet was 89.2% occupied, compared to 89.3% at the end of the preceding third quarter. During the quarter, Liberty completed lease transactions totaling 4.7 million square feet of space.
Property level operating income for same store properties decreased by 1.4% on a cash basis and by 2.8% on a straight line basis for the fourth quarter compared to the year-ago period.
For fiscal year 2009, the company's net income available to common shareholders fell to $56.38 million or $0.52 per share from $151.94 million or $1.62 per share last year. Adjusting for the non-cash impairment charge, earnings per share for the latest year was $1.37.
FFO available to common shareholders for the year was $222.11 million or $1.98 per share, down from $313.91 million or $3.20 per share as year ago.
Excluding the impairment charge, FFO for the year was $2.83 per share. Analysts expected the company to report earnings of $2.83 per share.
The company had earlier projected net income for the year in a range of $1.32-$1.37 per share and FFO in a range of $2.81-$2.83 per share.
Total operating revenue for the year increased to $744.26 million from $731.35 million in the prior year. Analysts expected the company to report revenues for the year of $747.34 million.
LRY closed Monday's regular trading session at $29.13, down $0.60 or 2.02% on a volume of 0.94 million shares.
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