3 Apr 2012

Property trust hangs fire of spending $70m payout

7:16 am on 3 April 2012

Kiwi Income Property Trust says the company could have to wait as much as another year before deciding how it will invest an insurance payout for a quake-damaged office building in central Christchurch.

Demolition of the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Centre is now underway and the listed property landlord is being paid $69.3 million.

Trust chief executive Chris Gudgeon says the "satisfactory" cash settlement gives it flexibility to move on.

But Mr Gudgeon says the trust is waiting for the central city plan to be approved by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority before deciding how it will reinvest the money.

Investors in the trust have been told to expect a full year payout forecast of 7 cents per unit for the March year, because of improving retail sales at its shopping centres.