27th Jun 2025 12:14
(Alliance News) - AEW UK REIT PLC on Friday maintained its dividend as it reported a "strong performance" in the 2025 financial year with its net asset value increasing.
The real estate investment trust said its net asset value per share was 110.11 pence as of March 31, up 7.2% from 102.73p a year prior.
NAV total return was positive 15% for the financial year to the end of March, against 5.0% the previous year.
The company's EPRA net initial yield stood at 7.97% as at March 31, down from 8.02% a year prior.
"We are very pleased with the strong performance across the portfolio, which evidences the effectiveness of the company's active and sector-agnostic strategy and its ability to enhance shareholder value through active management," said Chair Robin Archibald.
AEW UK REIT delivered a property total return of 14.8% for the year, double that of the MSCI benchmark performance of 7.4%.
Pretax profit more than doubled to GBP24.4 million from GBP9.1 million.
EPRA earnings per share rose 23% to 9.00p from 7.29p, AEW said.
The total dividend for the year was 8.00p per share, unchanged from the prior year.
AEW UK REIT's property portfolio had a valuation of GBP204.6 million at the end of the year across 33 properties, down from GBP210.7 million across 36 last year.
Looking ahead, it will "look to exploit growth opportunities for the company" including potentially issuing equity.
"AEW is enthusiastic about the current opportunities in the UK market and believes that now is an excellent time to deploy capital. Given this, the board and the manager will look to exploit these to appropriately scale the strategy, including the issuance of equity, should this be in the existing shareholders' interests," said Chair Robin Archibald.
"Against an unpredictable economic backdrop, fiscal and interest rate pressures, and destabilising geo-political events, the challenge is to present the company's excellent investment case, to continue to manage the portfolio for income and capital profits and to maintain a strong rating on the company's shares and liquidity in the secondary market."
Shares in AEW UK REIT were up 0.8% at 106.05 pence in London on Friday morning.
By Michael Hennessey, Alliance News reporter
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