Excluding the charge, FFO per diluted share for the quarter was $0.51, compared to net earnings of $0.55 per share in the first quarter of 2003. Earnings per diluted share for the first quarter were $0.23, compared with net earnings per diluted share of $0.21 in the first quarter of 2003.
"We continue to be optimistic about the economic recovery and improving market fundamentals," says K. Dane Brooksher, chairman and CEO. "First quarter operating property performance continued to improve as we achieved a 0.70% increase in same store net operating income, driven by same store average occupancy gains of 0.67%."
Brooksher says PLD's financial results are on track for the first half of the year and "reflect our expectation that income from our corporate distribution facilities services business would be more heavily weighted toward the second half of the year."
On the other hand: "We continue to remain cautious in our outlook for the remainder of the year, as decision making still lags behind the pace of the economic rebound," he adds.
But he notes that PLD is seeing a strengthening in demand and net positive absorption in most of the market in which it operates."In the first quarter, we signed 3.6 million sf of build-to-suit andCDFS leases on previously unleased space," Brooksher says. "Over 65% of total CDFS leases in the quarter were with repeat customers. For example, we leased a facility to Abbott Laboratories in Chicago following a lease with them in Madrid last quarter and leased additional space in Budapest to Geodis, a top 25 customer with seven leases in five markets. In addition, we signed build-to-suit agreements with Bunzl in Houston, Gefco and NYK in Germany, Kuehne & Nagel in Sweden and Hitachi Transport in Tokyo."
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