Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) significantly boosted its rental income in the first quarter. The real estate group is now much larger than in the comparable period last year, thanks to the acquisition of the Australian Westfield.

The gross rental income increased more than 28 percent to 606.5 million euros. The total turnover increased by more than 45 percent to 777.4 million euros. In European shopping centers, tenants of the company managed to increase their sales by 4.3 percent.

URW further confirms its previously issued forecast for the adjusted recurring profit. This is expected to be between 11.80 euros and 12 euros per share throughout 2019.

The fund listed in Amsterdam last year paid around 21 billion euros for Westfield. According to the parties, the acquisition created the world’s largest developer and operator of shopping centers in prime locations in major cities. Since June last year, more than EUR 3.1 billion of assets have been sold in order to reduce the debt burden. An average premium of 7.2 percent was realized on the book value.