Kite reports smaller quarterly loss on much higher revenue

Kite Realty Group Trust Inc. recorded a smaller loss in the third quarter as revenue soared 34 percent, the Indianapolis-based company reported Thursday.

The real estate investment trust said it lost $900,000 in the quarter, compared with a loss of $3 million during the same period of 2012.

Revenue jumped to $32.7 million, from $24.3 million a year ago, partly due the acquisition of properties and because of development properties becoming operational. On the same-property level, revenue rose 4.9 percent compared with last year’s third quarter..

Kite saw funds from operations, or FFO, of $14 million, or 14 cents per share, compared with $7.9 million, or 11 cents per share, a year ago. The results beat analyst expectations by 2 cents per share. FFO is a common measure of REIT performance.

The company's performance was helped by higher operating income, in addition to a $1.2 million non-cash gain on debt extinguishment and the related reversal of a $1.2 million interest expense relating to Kite’s Kedron Village development.

Kite's lender foreclosed in June on Kedron Village, a 266,000-square-foot retail center in the upscale planned community of Peachtree City, Ga., after a Kite subsidiary defaulted on the project’s $29.5 million loan.

Also during the third quarter, Kite acquired Toringdon Market, a 60,500-square-foot retail center in Charlotte, which is 97-percent leased and anchored by Earth Fare.

Kite, which owns interests in 62 retail properties totaling 9.5 million square feet, said the properties were 95.9-percent leased as of Sept. 30, compared with 93.6 percent in the year-ago period.

Shares of Kite fell nearly 6 percent early Friday, to $6.03 each, but jumped back to $6.36 a short time later. Shares reached  a 52-week high of $6.91 in March.