25th Mar 2019 08:48
LONDON (Alliance News) - Hansteen Holdings PLC on Monday reported a decline in net asset value hurt by significant distribution to its shareholders following the sale of assets.
The stock was trading 0.1% lower on Monday morning at 92.65 pence a share.
The UK industrial property investor reported NAV per share of 102.7p for the year to the end of December 2018, down from 130.6p reported a year earlier.
During the year, the company disposed of GBP294.5 million and acquired GBP56.9 million of property, resulting in a return of capital on in May last year of GBP144.5 million, equivalent to 35p per share.
As a result of these capital returns, some of the reported profit measures have fallen compared to the previous year, Hansteen noted. NAV per share has grown when adjusted for the return of capital during the year.
The like-for-like value of the portfolio has increased by 6.5% since the end of 2017 to GBP603.6 million. The company has also reported like-for-like increase in contracted rent to GBP1.7 million from GBP900,000.
The company declared annual payout of 6.2p, up from 6.1p paid the year prior.
"As a result of the quantity of property sold in the last few years, the size of the management platform has decreased, accordingly, we have reduced the cost of running the business in-line with the reduced capital base and the reduced property portfolio," explained Chair Melvyn Egglenton.
"In the near term our emphasis will be to manage our portfolio for income and value growth, rather than sales. We will continue to seek acquisitions that fit our approach and sell opportunistically but do not envisage that we will be significant net sellers until we have a clearer view on this current property cycle," added Joint Chief Executive Morgan Jones and Ian Watson.
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