8th Mar 2016 07:55
LONDON (Alliance News) - Property investor CLS Holdings PLC on Tuesday said its pretax profit had fallen for the year ended December 31, with the gain in the valuation of its property portfolio half what it was in 2014, as its chairman stepped down.
The property investor reported pretax profit of GBP151.2 million for 2015, down from GBP236.8 million the previous year, as it registered a GBP98.0 million gain in the valuation of its property portfolio, compared to a GBP186.0 million gain in 2014.
Group revenue for the year was GBP118.9 million, up from GBP99.6 million, as its net rental income rose to GBP99.0 million from GBP82.2 million.
CLS is proposing a tender offer buyback of 1 in 57 shares at 1,810 pence per share in April, with a plan to distribute GBP13.4 million to its shareholders, equivalent to 31.8 pence per share. This would bring total shareholder distributions for 2014 to GBP19.1 million, up 20% year-on-year.
CLS said the forthcoming Brexit may cause some temporary political and economic uncertainty in the UK, but beyond this it expects the UK economy to continue to grow. It said the commercial property market, particularly outside the West End and City of London, should perform well in 2016, reflecting an excess of tenant demand over commercial office supply.
CLS said, effective today, Sten Mortstedt had stepped down as chairman and was now executive director of CLS. Replacing Mortstedt as chairman is Henry Klotz.
"This has been a successful year for the group with low borrowing costs and vacancy levels, solid tenant demand and continued revaluation uplifts to produce record EPRA earnings per share and net asset value," said Mortstedt.
By Hannah Boland; [email protected]; @Hannaheboland
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