Acquisitions help Vonovia's core profit rise 16 percent in 2018

BERLIN (Reuters) - Vonovia, Germany's biggest residential property company, affirmed its guidance earnings to rise this year after profit jumped almost 16 percent in 2018, boosted by its purchases of Sweden's Victoria Park and Austria's Buwog.

Vonovia, which owns 396,000 flats in Germany, Austria and Sweden, said funds from operations 1 (FF0 1) rose 15.8 percent to 1.07 billion euros (918.08 million pounds), matching the average forecast for 1.66 billion in a Reuters poll of analysts.

It said it planned to raise its dividend to 1.44 euros per share from 1.32 euros in 2017 and confirmed its guidance for FFO 1 to rise to between 1.14 and 1.19 billion euros in 2019.

(Reporting by Caroline Copley, Edited by Tassilo Hummel)