Early numbers.

Los Angeles-based real estate investment trust Maguire Properties Inc. reported results last week for the four-day rump period between its June 26 initial public offering and the June 30 end of its second quarter. The results--essentially meaningless as a measure of its performance--netted out to a loss of $46.2 million, or $1.25 a diluted share, including charges related to Mazuire's IPO.

The owner of downtown high rises, including Gas Co. Tower and US Bank Tower, didn't provide a breakout of the comparable year-ago period, but in a later 10Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission it gave details of its performance for the first six months of 2003.

For that period, Maguire Properties and its predecessor, Maguire Partners, lost a combined $48.4 million, versus a loss of $4 million for the predecessor company in the like year-ago period.

The IPO and associated financial restructuring vastly change Maguire Properties' outlook for the future.

The company projected earnings of between 55 cents and 62 cents a share for the second half of the year, and said funds from operations, a common measure of cash flow for REITs, would range between 94 and 98 cents.

REITs receive favored tax status in exchange for distributing most of their income to shareholders in the form of dividends. In its 10Q, Maguire Partners said it intends to pay a pro-rata distribution from June 27, its first day as a public company, to the Sept. 30 end of the third quarter based on a rate of 40 cents per share for the full quarter.

With the stock trading around $20 a share last week, the projected dividend yield works out to about 8 percent.

On the Rise
Maguire's yield appealing.

Aug. 13, 2003    $20.00
June 26, 2003    $19.22

Sources: California State Employment Development Department (employment figures); The Conference Board, N.Y. (help-wanted ad index); Entertainment Industry Development Corporation Los Angeles Film Office (film permits); U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of Calif., Los Angeles (bankruptcies); Dun & Bradstreet (business failures); Economic Development Corporation, Los Angeles (exports, imports); City of Los Angeles Airport Department (LAX passenger traffic and air cargo); Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority (Burbank passenger traffic and air cargo); Bureau of Labor Statistics, Los Angeles (Los Angeles consumer price index); Office of Economic Research at California State University, Long Beach (index of leading indicators); First American Real Estate Solutions, Anaheim (construction lending, property lending, refinance lending, foreclosures, home sales, home prices, home prices per square foot, condo sales, condo prices); F.W. Dodge Division, McGraw-Hill (building contracts); Construction Industry Research Board (housing start permits, building permits); M/PF Research Inc. (apartments); Grubb & Ellis (office and industrial vacancy rates); PKF Consulting (hotel occupancy rate, room rate).

--Matt Myerhoff