9th Jun 2020 11:07
(Alliance News) - McKay Securities PLC on Tuesday posted a 28% year-on-year drop in financial 2020 profit and said that it will chop its final dividend by 40% because of the business impact of Covid-19.
The London-focused property company said it has collected 73% of rent due for the first quarter of financial 2021 ended on June 30, which rises to 95% when including rent paid monthly or subject to deferral plans.
Chair Richard Grainger said: "The financial results for the year under review reflect another productive period for McKay. This performance has since been overshadowed by Covid-19 at the very end of the reporting period. We face this period of uncertainty with the benefit of a high-quality portfolio invested in resilient markets and sectors, and with characteristics that could benefit in the post Covid-19 world."
For the financial year that ended March 31, Reading-based McKay recorded pretax profit of GBP9.5 million, down 28% from GBP13.2 million profit a year ago, mainly as a result of the positive revaluation surplus being smaller than the prior year.
Annual gross rental income increased 16% to GBP25.2 million, following annualised contributions from prior year development projects and active asset management.
Net asset value fell 0.9% to 328 pence per share from 331p. EPRA NAV was up 0.9% at 329p.
McKay's total portfolio value at the end of financial 2020 amounted to GBP510.0 million, up from GBP482.7 million a year ago, resulting in a valuation surplus of GBP110,000, down from GBP6.5 million a year before.
Total portfolio return was 4.7%, significantly outperforming the MSCI index's return of negative 0.1%.
McKay said it will cut its final payout to 4.4p from 7.4p to maintain a higher cash position ahead of greater visibility on market conditions and business progress in response to Covid-19. The total dividend for financial 2020 as a result amounted to 7.2p, down 29% from 10.2p in financial 2019.
Shares in the company were down 5.5% at 207.00p each in London on Tuesday morning.
By Tapan Panchal; [email protected]
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