9th Jun 2016 08:02
LONDON (Alliance News) - First Property Group PLC on Thursday posted an increased revenue for its financial year as pretax profit dipped due to the weakening of the euro against sterling, and a reduced contribution from its Fprop PDR LP vehicle, but said its markets were generally buoyant.
The property fund manager, which has assets under management and property holdings in the UK, Poland and Romania, said revenue rose to GBP22.0 million for the year ended March 31, from GBP18.5 million a year earlier.
However, pretax profit fell to GBP7.3 million from GBP8.1 million, with the company noting that this figure was around GBP671,000 lower than it would have been were it translated at last year's rate.
First Property said it earned performance fees of GBP900,000 from its Fpop PDR vehicle for the year, compared to the GBP3.4 million earned a year earlier, although this was offset by an increase in contribution coming from the group's properties.
First Property completed the sale of the last remaining investment in its Fprop PDR LP vehicle in August, which, at the time, it said would result in a GBP1 million uplift to the company's profit for 2015, but said it now does not expect to earn any further fees from this vehicle.
First Property said it upped its final dividend to 1.115 pence per share, from 1.00p per share a year earlier, which takes its full year dividend to 1.50p per share, from 1.35p per share a year earlier.
"In the financial year just ended the group benefited from a full year of contributions from the investments made by it and Fprop Opportunities PLC in the previous financial year, all of which have yielded income at or above our expectations at the time of their purchase and are, without exception, valued at levels exceeding their acquisition prices," said Chief Executive Ben Habib.
"The recurring nature of these earnings should enable us to build on the impressive increase in adjusted net assets, which together with dividend payments has averaged 21% per annum since April 1, 2008, the onset of the credit crunch. The markets in which we operate are generally buoyant and offering interesting investment opportunities which we hope to capitalise on in due course," Habib added.
Shares in First Property Group were down 1.6% at 44.53p on Thursday.
By Hannah Boland; [email protected]; @Hannaheboland
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