20th Oct 2014 08:15
LONDON (Alliance News) - Lok'nStore Group PLC Monday posted a lower pretax profit for its last financial year, as a rise in revenue was more than offset by an impairment charge, although it hiked its dividend and said it was confident in its underlying prospects.
The self-storage company said its pretax profit in the year to July 31 fell to GBP367,000, from GBP1.4 million a year earlier, even though revenue rose to GBP13.9 million, from GBP13.0 million.
It booked a GBP1.6 million one-off impairment charge for its Portsmouth North Harbour site, saying it has no immediate plans to progress work at the site and may not ultimately develop it as a self-storage facility.
Despite the impairment, the company expressed confidence in the underlying strength of its business and hiked its dividend by 16.7% to 7 pence per share, from 6 pence per share a year earlier.
The rise in revenue was driven by an increase in unit occupancy for its core self-storage business, up 12.4% in the year, and by a 5.8% increase in unit pricing. Unit occupancy for the group has increased to 69.5%, from 64% last year.
The group said its new site in Maidenhead was performing well and it intends to open new sites in Reading, Aldershot, Southampton and Bristol in the next eighteen months.
"Trading has been strong and accelerated through the second half of our financial year," said Lok'nStore Chief Executive Officer Andrew Jacobs.
"The strong growth of the business, and Lok'nStore's low level of debt means that this can be financed out of our existing bank facilities, while progressively increasing the dividend," Jacobs added.
Lok'nStore shares were up 4.2% to 210 pence on Monday.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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