16th Feb 2016 09:34
LONDON (Alliance News) - A&J Mucklow on Tuesday reported a drop in pretax profit, resulting from a lower valuation of its property portfolio in the first half of its financial year, despite a slight rise in gross rental income.
The property investment company said its pretax profit for the six months to the end of December was GBP14.4 million, down from GBP27.3 million for the same period in 2014. Its underlying pretax profit for the six months, which strips out profit on sales of investment and trading properties and the gain in the value of its portfolio, was up at GBP7.5 million against GBP6.5 million the previous year.
However, A&J Mucklow reported an increase in revenue to GBP11.9 million from GBP11.0 million, on the back of higher rental income, to GBP11.5 million from GBP10.5 million, and the company also said its occupancy rate at the end of December was 95.3%, up from the 94.3% reported at the end of 2014.
As such, the group slightly increased its interim dividend, hiking it to 9.59 pence per share from 9.31p in 2014.
A&J Mucklow said it remains "optimistic" about its prospects for the full year to end June, adding the second half had "started well".
Shares in A&J Mucklow were down 0.8% at 486.00p on Tuesday morning.
By Hannah Boland; [email protected]; @Hannaheboland
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