29th Apr 2014 08:41
LONDON (Alliance News) - Segro PLC said Tuesday its expectations for the full-year are unchanged, after a "busy and productive quarter" and improved market conditions.
The property company said it has made progress against its strategic objectives whilst also seeing a continued improvement in both occupational and investment market conditions during the first quarter.
In an interim management statement for the first quarter to April 28, the developer of industrial premises and warehouses said it contracted GBP9.0 million of rental income, up from GBP4.7 million last year. Within this income, the firm signed new pre-lets of GBP5.4 million pounds, no new pre-lets were signed last year.
Occupier demand for new space has continued to improve in most markets, reflected in increased rental commitments, said Segro, particularly for pre-let developments, compared with the first quarter of 2013.
David Sleath, Chief Executive, said, "We have had a busy and productive first quarter, making further progress against our strategic objectives whilst also seeing a continued improvement in both occupational and investment market conditions.''
"We have taken advantage of the stronger market conditions to accelerate our development programme, adding more than 50 per cent to both the number of projects and space to be built since the start of the year," he added.
Looking ahead, Segro said that demand for well-located, prime industrial and logistics assets has continued to strengthen, which is translating into further yield compression. "We are confident that we will continue to make progress in the coming months and our expectations for the full year are unchanged," said Sleath.
In April the firm agreed new and amended bank facilities totalling EUR460 million, or GBP380 million, at lower interest rates than its previous facilities. The EUR225 million facility is a multi-currency, five-year facility which replaces existing facilities of EUR395 million. The lenders are Barclays, Bank of China, BNP Paribas, HSBC, Lloyds, KBC Bank, Santander, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Segro shares were trading marginally higher at 354.692 pence per share Tuesday morning.
By Alice Attwood; [email protected]; @AliceAtAlliance
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Segro