Profit increases for Las Vegas retail developer

Tuesday, Aug. 3, 1999 | 10:07 a.m.

BLOOMBERG NEWS

TORONTO -- TrizecHahn Corp., one of North America's largest real estate companies, said second-quarter earnings rose 21 percent.

The increase was attributed to higher rents paid to TrizecHahn in the United States. The company is a big retail developer in the Las Vegas market.

TrizecHahn's funds from operations, a measure of cash flow, rose to US $80.1 million, or 49 cents a share, from US $66 million, or 41 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 15 percent to US $164.5 million from US $143.2 million.

"They've got a number of development assets on their books that aren't earning cash flow today but will earn pretty strong cash flow in the next year or two," said Sam Damiani, a real estate analyst at Newcrest Capital Inc. in Toronto, who expects the stock to rise to US $25.50 within the next 12 months.

Among those projects is the Desert Passage retail center at the Aladdin hotel-casino under construction on the Las Vegas Strip.

TrizecHahn, in a bid to take advantage of rising rents and low vacancy rates, has also been one of the largest buyers of office buildings in the United States and Canada.

It recently bought One New York Plaza for US $390 million to strengthen its foothold in the New York market.

TrizecHahn -- formed from the merger of Horsham Corp. and Trizec Corp. in 1996 -- controls more than US $6.5 billion of real estate in North America and Europe. It owns or has a stake in 120 properties with 68 million square feet.