17th Nov 2015 08:14
LONDON (Alliance News) - Self-storage provider Big Yellow Group PLC on Tuesday lifted its interim dividend by 16% as the storage company reported a big jump in pretax profit in the first half of its financial year.
FTSE 250-listed Big Yellow lifted its interim dividend per share to 12.1 pence from 10.4p, as pretax profit rose to GBP59.6 million in the six months to September 30, compared with GBP35.3 million the corresponding six months the prior year.
Adjusted pretax profit, which excludes the revaluation of investment properties, changes in fair value of interest rate derivatives, net gains and losses on surplus land, and any non-recurring items of income and expenditure, was up 30% at GBP23.9 million in the half.
Revenue increased by 26% to GBP50.2 million when including new and acquired stores, though it was up 9.0% to GBP43.2 million on a like-for-like basis.
"In this seasonally stronger trading period like-for-like closing group occupancy is up 4.1 percentage points to 77.3% compared to 73.2% at 31 March 2015. The growth of 4.1 percentage points is at the top end of the guidance given in May," Executive Chairman Nicholas Vetch said in a statement.
"We believe Big Yellow is well placed to withstand future headwinds, given the security of our capital structure and market leading brand. As the Big Yellow portfolio is approaching 80%, we remain relentlessly focussed on occupancy gain at this stage, but in addition we have intensified our efforts to develop new capacity," Vetch said.
Shares in Big Yellow were down 0.7% at 742.50p on Tuesday shortly after the market open in London.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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