18th Feb 2015 08:34
LONDON (Alliance News) - A&J Mucklow Group PLC on Wednesday reported a rise in pretax profit, driven higher by a gain on the value of its property portfolio in the first half of its financial year, as its gross rental income for the first half was broadly flat year-on-year.
The property investment company said its pretax profit for the six months to the end of December was GBP27.4 million, up from GBP14.2 million last year. Its underlying pretax profit for the year, which strips out profit on sales of investment and trading properties and the gain in the value of its portfolio, was nearly flat at GBP6.5 million against GBP6.3 million last year.
Statutory pretax profit was driven higher by a big gain on the value of A&J Mucklow's investment portfolio over the year, up to GBP323.7 million from GBP298.9 million last year.
The group slightly increased its interim dividend on the back of the profit rise, hiking it to 9.31 pence from 9.04p last year.
A&J Mucklow said its occupancy rate at the end of December was 94.3%, up from the 93.3% reported at the end of June 2014.
Shares in A&J Mucklow were untraded on Wednesday morning, having last traded at 499.00 pence.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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