18th Mar 2025 10:33
(Alliance News) - Harworth Group PLC on Tuesday hiked its dividend as it reported record revenue, supported by "landmark land sales" to Microsoft Corp and Frasers Group PLC.
The Rotherham, South Yorkshire-based regenerator of land for sustainable development said revenue more than doubled to GBP181.6 million in 2024 from GBP72.4 million in 2023.
Pretax profit grew 39% to GBP69.4 million from GBP49.8 million. Cost of sales surged to GBP150.5 million from GBP60.1 million.
Basic earnings per share were up 50% to 17.7 pence from 11.8 pence in the previous year.
Harworth declared a final dividend of 1.125 pence per share, which increased its total dividend per share by 10% to 1.614p from 1.466p in 2023.
Total accounting return grew to 9.1% from 5.1%, while its EPRA net disposal value grew 8.5% to GBP719.5 million from GBP662.9 million, or to 222.3p from 205.1p in 2023 on a per share basis.
Total property sales increased 71% to GBP215.8 million from GBP125.9 million. Harworth hailed the agreement of a GBP106.6 million land sale to Microsoft, of which GBP47.9 million was recognised during 2024.
The company also completed the sale of a site in Ansty, England to Frasers for GBP53.5 million.
Harworth said its land bank now has the capacity to deliver up to 33.6 million square feet of Industrial & Logistics space and 31,264 Residential plots in the Midlands and North of England.
Chief Executive Lynda Shillaw said: ""Harworth delivered record revenue and land sales in 2024, generating significant value gains, with EPRA NDV up 8.5% year on year. Our strong total accounting return of 9.1% is yet again among the best in the sector and the result of management actions, consistent with our focus on driving value as we continue to progress our sites through development.
"Our performance continues to demonstrate the resilience of our through-the-cycle business model and highlights our ability to capitalise on emerging sectors, such as data centres, to accelerate our sites. The last four years of investment in strengthening our business to enable growth is bearing fruit and the business is performing across the board."
Looking ahead, Harworth said the structural drivers of the Industrial & Logistics market remain "particularly strong," with increased infrastructure requirements for online retail, cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
Chief Executive Lynda Shillaw said the firm is cautious due to the current macro-economic backdrop, but was well-placed to navigate uncertainty.
Shillaw said: "Our consented pipeline and land bank and our ability to deliver at scale are significant strengths against a backdrop of site scarcity in our regions, and a planning system that remains sluggish as the reforms introduced by the government bed in.
"With a significant number of our sites coming on line for development, we are well positioned to continue to deliver strong returns, creating long-term value for our investors as we recycle capital to unlock the material underlying value of our land bank and increase the development of modern grade A Industrial & Logistics assets. All of these actions provide the foundations for achieving our targets of GBP1 billion of EPRA NDV by the end of 2027 and growing our core investment portfolio to GBP900 million by the end of 2029."
Shares in Harworth Group were up 2.7% to 171.00 pence in London on Tuesday morning.
By Michael Hennessey, Alliance News reporter
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