Wellington, Aug 5 NZPA - Goodman Property Trust had an acting chairman standing in for an acting chairman today at an annual unitholders meeting at which there were no resolutions requiring a vote.

Acting chairman Keith Smith paid tribute to Jim McLay, who resigned as chairman to become New Zealand's ambassador to the United Nations.

He said acting chairman Greg Goodman was unable to attend due to a rare clash of commitments between the affairs of the Goodman Group in Australia and Goodman Property Trust in New Zealand.

There is no statutory requirement for unit trusts to have an annual meeting but in holding one the trust is able to update unitholders.

The trust's portfolio has been devalued by 10.3 percent to $1.5 billion. This had no impact on distributable profit, but it did impact on the loan-to-value ratio and reduced net tangible assets to $1.06 a unit. The trust traded at 99c this afternoon.

The trust has renewed $900 million of debt facilities and extended its banking syndicate to include Kiwibank. It has increased investment return thresholds for new developments and suspended uncommitted developments.

The trust has sold $50.6m of assets and has identified $57m of potential sales.

The potential sale of Southpark Industrial Estate in Christchurch did not progress because the purchaser was unable to secure appropriate funding.

"Our rental cashflows are secure and recurring, and we can forecast these with some confidence. With 90 percent of this year's rental income already contracted we expect to deliver a strong operational performance consistent with our earnings guidance," chief executive John Dakin said.

"While we expect economic growth to remain weak in the short term we do expect that it will improve in coming months with a subsequent lift in occupier demand to follow," he said.

The board's new distribution policy limited distribution to around 90 percent of distributable earnings.

The trust forecasts operating earnings of between 9c and 9.5c a unit in the current year, with a forecast distribution of between 8.3c and 8.6c a unit.