8th Jan 2019 08:14
LONDON (Alliance News) - Safestore Holdings PLC on Tuesday reported doubling its annual profit and boasted of an "encouraging" start to its 2019 financial year, as the company's board chair announced he will step down.
In the year that ended October 31, the FTSE 250-listed self-storage provider's pretax profit more than doubled to GBP185.3 million from GBP78.9 million the year before.
Safestore's revenue increased 11% to GBP143.9 million from GBP129.9 million.
As a result of this "strong" trading performance, the company upped its dividend payout 16% to 16.25 pence from 14.00p. Safestore's final dividend was hiked 14% to 11.15p from 9.8p.
"We have delivered another successful year of growth characterised by strong organic performance, efficient integration of our recent acquisitions and good performances from our recently opened new stores," said Chief Executive Officer Frederic Vecchioli.
Safestore acquired 12 Alligator Self-Storage stores at the beginning of November for GBP55.9 million. The portfolio's "successful" integration into the firm was attributed for a portion of profit growth.
Vecchioli continued: "We have continued to seek high-quality sites to open new stores and have successfully added four new stores to the pipeline which means we plan to open new stores in London-Carshalton, Paris-Pontoise, and Birmingham-Merry Hill during 2019, and subject to planning, Paris-Magenta in 2020."
Safestore's closing occupancy at Ocotber 31, of maximum lettable area, was up 1.0 basis point to 73.6% from 72.6%.
Safestore's Chair Alan Lewis said "the time is right" for him to retire from the company and a search for a successor has been launched immediately. Lewis will step down when his successor has been appointed.
Looking ahead, the storage company said it is encouraged with the start of its new year.
In the two months to December 31, the company's like-for-like revenue was up 6.4%.
Vecchioli added: "The start to the current financial year has been encouraging in all our geographies and our leading market positions in the UK and Paris, combined with our resilient business model, enable us to look forward to the future with confidence."
Shares in Safestore were up 3.0% in early trading on Tuesday at 543.50 pence each.
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