How did Wereldhave perform in 2025?

Yes. We published a direct result per share of €1.86. That is indeed slightly above the range of 180. And that is due to a number of factors. First, the occupancy rate of the entire portfolio rose to 98%. We are very pleased with that. It is also the highest level since 2013. In addition, we have been able to keep costs well under control, and finally we have seen a significant increase in what we call in English 'income' or other income. Those are not rental income, but for example income from solar panels, EV chargers in the parking lot, but also the digital screens in the shopping centers. And finally, the income we obtain as management, as manager of the joint venture we announced in June with the French SVI in Zoetermeer. Yes, all together means that the profit turned out a bit higher.

The Dutch government decided a number of years ago to abolish the tax regime, the FBI, the fiscal investment institution. And that means that as of January 1, 2025, we will pay corporate income tax in the Netherlands. And that has been our main reason to rotate some capital from the Netherlands to Belgium. And Luxembourg was added there as well. That does not mean we want to leave the Netherlands entirely, because we have a very strong management team that is also valued by third parties, as evidenced by the joint venture with SOVD. That is why we decided back then that we still want to be active in the Netherlands, but preferably through joint ventures in which we have a minority interest in a shopping center. But we are the manager responsible for asset management, leasing, development, essentially all aspects of management. And of course we get a fee for that. Because we already have that team in place, we can make very good margins on it. We closed our first joint venture in June 2025 for the Stadshart Zoetermeer shopping center together with the French SOFID. And we are now busy with a number of projects to make a second joint venture in the Netherlands effective this year. So you will hear more about that later this year.

The Dutch retail real estate market has had a difficult time in the last 10, maybe even 15 years. That is of course due to the rise of online shopping. But it also has to do with the covid period, during which many people started shopping online. And in the Netherlands, there were also many bankruptcies in that period. Many chains from the old Maxeda, Vendex, KBB, Boedel, to name a few. But we have largely come through that in the Netherlands. That is the good news. We also communicated about that over the past year. And as a result, you see that the occupancy rate in the Netherlands has made the biggest step forward. And we see that also, for example, in the re-letting of the vacant Blokker and Casa properties in the Netherlands. Those are chains that went bankrupt. Yes, that went very smoothly and we had multiple candidates. So we were able to do that at a higher rent than what Blokker and Casa paid. Well, I think that is a very good sign for the Dutch market. It is not the case that the market is recovering strongly everywhere in the Netherlands. If we look at some centers we sold in the past, those are somewhat more difficult locations. I think the market there is still recovering less strongly, but especially in the Randstad, where we are mostly located now, the rental market is really improving. In Belgium, we still see, actually over the past 10 years, just a strong rental market because Belgium has much less shopping center square meters per inhabitant than, for example, the Netherlands, France, or Spain. In Belgium, much less was built in the past. So there is always that tension between supply and demand. Currently, in the past 2 years, there have been some bankruptcies in Belgium. We have also suffered a bit from that. But, as evidenced by the occupancy rate in Belgium also of 98%, you see that we can fill that again very easily. France is more difficult. In France, you see somewhat weaker operational figures with us. Yes, that is mainly due to the fact that the French economy, and most people know this I think, is struggling within Europe. The French consumer also has a less rosy picture than, for example, in Belgium and the Netherlands, where collective labor agreement wages have risen more sharply. And that is reflected in the rental market of the shopping centers. In addition, there are still quite a few bankruptcies in France, especially in the fashion sector. There are a number of brands, for example, recently again in the news, a bankruptcy in France. That is a large chain with 150 to 200 stores across the country. So that is a different story than in the Netherlands and Belgium.

With the sales in the Netherlands, we are done. In Belgium, we are not selling anything. And in Luxembourg, of course not either, because we just bought two centers there. So only the last two French assets, we still want to sell. That has been going on for a while since 2021, when we sold four French assets. Yes, we hope to be able to take a step this year at least. I do see that the French market, following the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain, I am talking about the investment market, that there are already some transactions again. So it would be very nice if we could say goodbye to one or maybe even two French centers this year. On the acquisition side, we are primarily focused on Belgium and Luxembourg to buy new centers there with fully own capital. And secondly, in the Netherlands, we would like to close new joint ventures. So call it a second Zoetermeer-like structure, as I just indicated, that is the ambition in the Netherlands. And finally, we are also looking to put existing Wereldhave shopping centers into a joint venture in the Netherlands. That would free up some capital again, and with that we can also lower the debt ratio, which is very important for us. It currently stands at 42.5%. We want it below 40%. So the sales I mentioned must contribute to that. In addition, when we make acquisitions, as we have always done in the past, we have also always used a portion of new shares to finance them. Yes. And if you use more than 60% new shares, then you have the benefit of doing an acquisition, but on the other hand, the debt ratio also goes down a bit further, because that is also very important for us this year.