OREANDA-NEWS. On August 18, 2009 PIK (LSE: PIK), one of Russia’s leading residential real estate developers, published updated housing completion figures for the first 6M 2009, the press-centre of PIK reported.

Summary:

Continuing weak fundamentals in operating environment given the lack of funding following onset of the global financial crisis in 4Q 2008

Housing completions in the first half of the financial year severely restricted by withdrawal of access to debt finance and lack of demand from presales

Currently the Group is engaged to meet existing liabilities before customers, which means completing residential properties postponed earlier in 2008. This is financed purely from internal cash flows (e.g. construction services provided, completed inventory sold)

The Group’s primary focus stays on the restructuring of balance sheet debt to position the business for a more normalized economic environment.
 
Management is engaged in a ongoing dialogue with the majority of its creditors regarding the rescheduling of its debt repayment, however this process is getting much more time consuming as expected in the past.

Looking ahead, the economic outlook is uncertain, Russian GDP shrunk by 10,8% in the first half of 2009 and we believe that the rest of 2009 will not be easier as we do not yet see the  clear, strong catalysts for the recovery.