"After a disastrous year in the financial markets in 2008, 2009was the year of the aftermath," says CEO Gerard Groener. "Amidwidespread corporate restructuring, Corio maintained a firm courseand showed great resilience throughout the year. A major focus forus, as with all companies, was our balance sheet and the need tosecure our own longer term funding at sustainable rates. Even forhighly respected companies like Corio this was a challenge as theavailability of funding in the market shrank to near zero and anyfinancing that could be obtained came at a high price. Fundinggrowth and securing redemption schemes took up a good deal ofmanagement time."

Like-for-like growth in net rental income for retail was 1.7%.It said its average occupancy rate for the total portfolio was96.2% in 2009, down slight from 96.8%.

"The economic downturn led, in some areas, to greaterdiscounting and longer idle periods for vacant space, whichresulted in a slightly lower occupancy rate. This mainly affectedour Spanish shopping centers. The average financial occupancy ratein France fell because of restructurings of a number of shoppingcenters," Corio says.