19th Oct 2016 06:53
LONDON (Alliance News) - U&I Group PLC on Wednesday said market conditions have stabilised in recent weeks, after its first half performance of its investment portfolio was hit by the Brexit vote in June.
The property investment and development firm said its EPRA net asset value per share fell to 272 pence over its first half ended August 31, from 291p at the end of its full year to the end of May.
During the period, U&I said the value of its investment portfolio declined to GBP180.1 million from GBP203.3 million at the end of its full year, after GBP17.0 million of disposals were completed and the valuation as reduced by GBP8.6 million. This valuation reduction came as a result of market conditions following the UK's vote to leave the EU a swell as the increase in stamp duty in March.
U&I reported development and trading gains of GBP11.5 million in the first half, ahead of its GBP8.0 million guidance, but below the prior year when gains came in at GBP12.5 million.
In total segment revenue came in at GBP54.9 million from GBP75.6 million a year earlier. This combined with the loss on revaluation along with increased operating costs meant the company swung to a pretax loss of GBP11.7 million for the six month-period from a profit of GBP1.4 million a year earlier.
A further GBP11.0 million of development and trading gains were secured since the end of the first half in August, meaning total gains in the year-to-date currently stand at GBP22.5 million.
U&I said it expects to report development and trading gains in the range of GBP35.0 million and GBP40.0 million in the full year, notwithstanding the "challenging market backdrop".
The company kept its medium term target of delivering development and trading gains in excess of GBP50.0 million and achieving a 12% total return, post tax, unchanged.
U&I declared an interim dividend of 2.40p per share, unchanged from a year earlier.
"We continue to explore the opportunity to create a specialist platform to meet the growing need for affordable rental housing across our portfolio of sites in key regions and are advancing other partnerships to leverage the expertise we have in specific sectors of the market. These platforms should, alongside our targeted reduction in overheads, lead to cost savings and productivity gains," said Chief Executive Matthew Weiner.
By Hannah Boland; [email protected]; @Hannaheboland
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